Sinéad blames ‘pressures’ as marriage ends after 16 days
Writing on her website the acclaimed performer said her marriage to Barry Herridge had ended amicably after the pair had lived together for seven days, up until Christmas Eve.
O’Connor, 45, who has recorded a string of hits over more than two decades, had married Herridge in Las Vegas on December 8 after a whirlwind romance.
Ms O’Connor had previously attracted publicity by writing in her blog about her search for a man.
However, the marriage, sealed in a pink Cadillac on the Las Vegas strip, has proved shortlived, with the singer appealing to the media to leave Mr Herridge alone.
“I had for reasons u will all understand, wished to keep this private but have been told today it is to be leaked in the next few days despite my best efforts,” she wrote yesterday.
“So I must now leak it myself so as the record is straight.
“I won’t under any circumstances ever have any further comments to make on this matter than those I write here this evening. Either privately or publicly.”
Claiming that she did not want to “trap” Herridge, a counsellor and psychotherapist with the Substance Abuse Service Specific to Youth she had met online, she wrote on December 26: “From the moment myself and my husband got together not long ago, there was intense pressure placed upon him by certain people in his life, not to be involved with me.
“These were people who had never met me but had formed opinions of me based on what they read about ‘Sinead O’Connor’ in the media.
“Within three hours of the ceremony being over the marriage was kyboshed by the behaviour of certain people in my husband’s life. And also by a bit of a wild ride i took us on looking for a bit of a smoke of weed for me wedding night as I don’t drink.
“My husband was enormously wounded and very badly effected by that experience and also by the attitude of those close to him toward our marriage. It became apparent to me that if he were to stay with me he would be losing too much to bear.
“He is a wonderful man. I love him very much. I’m sorry I’m not a more regular woman. I truly believe though it is painful to admit, we made a mistake rushing into getting married, for altruistic reasons, and weren’t aware or prepared for the consequences on my husband’s life and the lives of those close to him. He has been terribly unhappy and I have therefore ended the marriage. I think he is too nice to do so. And too nice to trap.
“The marriage was 16 days. We lived together for 7 days only... until Xmas eve. And we haven’t been awful to each other. So while I feel sad for my husband, and sad to be the cause of sorrow to yet another poor man, I’m also happy that I know we weren’t horrible to each other and he is better off free. And that I can be me.”
SINÉAD O’CONNOR’S marriage to Barry Herridge, whom she wed on her 45th birthday — December 8, is her fourth:
* Her first marriage was in 1988 to writer and musician John Reynolds, who produced many of her albums, including Universal Mother. The couple had a son, Jake, the first of O’Connor’s four children.
Mr Reynolds was her session drummer at the time she fell pregnant and they were married the following year. The relationship ended amicably in 1991.
* In 2001 O’Connor got engaged to journalist Nick Sommerlad, who was working in Dublin for the Press Association. They married but split less than a year later. He has long worked for the Daily Mirror in England.
* On July 22, 2010, she announced her plans to marry musician and former Stockton’s Wing member, Steve Cooney. They wed, but broke up eight months later, with the singer claiming in April this year she was “heartbroken about the marriage breaking up”, claiming it had not been a happy union. He was part of O’Connor’s life for several years before they got married.
* She also had a two-year romance with social diarist Dermot Hayes prior to her second marriage.
O’Connor had a daughter with newspaper columnist John Waters in March 1996 and a son, in 2004, with Donal Lunny, a former member of folk band Planxty.
She also had a relationship with Frank Bonadio, the former partner of singer Mary Coughlan. A son was born to them in 2006.
