Irish singer Sinead O’Connor has been reported missing in Illinois. (Getty)
Sinead O’Connor has been found safe, police in a Chicago suburb say. The 49-year-old Irish singer had been reported missing amid fears she was suicidal
O’Connor, who has a history of suicide attempts and mental health issues, was last seen Sunday morning at about 6 a.m. in Wilmette, Illinois, when she set out on a bicycle ride. She never returned, police said in a brief statement.
It is not clear where she was found.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Police Say They Began Searching for Her After Receiving a Call From a Concerned Person
Statement from Wilmette Police Department over concerns for singer Sinead O’Connor:
The Wilmette Police Department said in a brief press release, which you can read above, that its officers were seeking to check the well-being of Sinead O’Connor.
Police said they received a call from a person expressing concern for her well-being.
Police Chief Brian King told the Chicago Tribune that O’Connor was riding a Raleigh motorized bicycle with a pink basket. She was wearing a black parka, leather pants and a sweatshirt with “Ireland” on the back.
“We generated an information bulletin for local law enforcement, which has apparently made its way to social media,” King told the newspaper. “Officers conducted checks of the area in which she was last observed, including parks and beaches.”
2. She Posted a Message to Facebook to Her Son on Sunday
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O’Connor posted a message to her son, Jake Reynolds, on Facebook at 8:12 a.m. local time, two hours after she was last seen leaving for her bicycle ride.
The post is in reference to the custody battle O’Connor is embroiled in with her ex, Donal Lunny, over their 11-year-old son, Shane. You can read the post below:
Jake, kindly go to the court on Tuesday and take custody your brother from Tusla. My lawyer will be making the illegal way yourself and Donal got him into Tusla (lying to the cops etc) known to the judge. expect to be in trouble. In fact you’d best bring a lawyer of your own. And do not abandon your brother or any other of my babies again. What you have done to your brother and your mother is LITERALLY criminal.
Tusla, which she mentions in the post, is the Child and Family Agency in Ireland.
3. She Received Medical Treatment in November After Posting a Suicide Note on Facebook
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O’Connor went missing in November after posting an apparent suicide note to Facebook.
This is the message in full:
There is only so much any woman can be expected to bear. What was done to me this week was appalling cruelty. By my husband, my family, by St Pats and by An Gardai Siochana, by my son, Jake and by Donal Lunny and Angela singleton, by my son’s girlfriend, his friends… after everything I’ve been put through and been forced to go through alone .. And punished for having to go through since I had the surgery on August 26th. Or since Shane became unwell in March, This week has broken me.
The withholding of my babies from me without any sound reason by their fathers, Frank and Donal, and by Jake and the rest of my family, is a horrific set of betrayals. And has been going on since I had my surgery. The last two nights finished me off. I have taken an overdose. There is no other way to get respect. I am not at home, I’m at a hotel, somewhere in ireland, under another name
If I wasn’t posting this, my kids and family wouldn’t even find out. Was dead for another fortnight since none of them bother their hole with me for a minute. I could have been dead here for weeks already and they’d never have known. Because apparently I’m scum and deserve to be abandoned and treated like shit just when I’ve had my womb and ovaries chopped out and my child is frighteningly sick. I’m such a rotten horrible mother and Person, that I’ve been alone. Howling crying for weeks. And been told by them all t go fuck myself. I’m invisible. I don’t matter a shred to anyone. No one has come near me. I’ve died a million times already with the pain of it. So yeah.. Strangers like me.. But my family don’t value me at all. They wouldn’t know if I was dead until weeks from now if I wasn’t fucking informing them now.
well done guys, you’ve finally got rid of me. Sorry the penny didn’t drop sooner. I’m an idiot. When you planned to get me away from my babies did you plan for me losing my mind over it? It being the final straw? For how you’re gonna explain why I died? Make sure you tell the truth. BARRY.. THEY WONT. YOURE THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS ME OR THE TRUTH. PLEASE STAND FOR ME AND TELL IT. i can’t play twister. My children don’t care if I live r die anyway. Neither do their dads. Everyone is better off. Never ever do this to a woman again. Let this be your lesson. I survived it when John waters did it.. I can’t survive Jake doing it.
She was found alive in Ireland and was hospitalized.
4. O’Connor Has Attempted Suicide in the Past & Was Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorder
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O’Connor attempted suicide on her 33rd birthday in 1999 she told Oprah Winfrey in 2007.
She also told Oprah that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
5. O’Connor Is Married to Her Fourth Husband, Barry Herridge
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O’Connor has been married four times, including to her current husband, Barry Herridge.
Herridge and O’Connor met online and married in December 2011. They split after 16 days, but got back together in 2014. The current status of their relationship is not clear.
O’Connor’s first husband was music producer John Reynolds, who she married in 1989. Her second husband was music journalist Nick Sommerlad, who she married in 2002. She wed her third husband, musician Steve Cooney, in 2010 but that marriage only lasted less than a year.
O’Connor has one daughter Rosin (19) and three sons Jake (28), Shane (11) and Yeshua (8).