Sinead OConnor Husband, Who She Was Married to Before She Died
She was married four times but regrets them all, but “luckily”, Sinead O’Connor’s husbands “were nice guys”.
Born on December 8, 1966, Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor—later to become Shuhada’ Sadaqat when she converted to Islam in 2018—released her debut album in 1987, The Lion and The Cobra. It charted internationally and was followed by her second album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got would become her biggest success with the single ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, written by Prince. O’Connor (she would maintain this as her stage name) would go on to make 10 studio albums across her career, the last of which was released in 2014 titled I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss. But she would never conform to the presence expected, or demanded, of her. “The media was making me out to be crazy because I wasn’t acting like a pop star was supposed to act,” she told the New York Times in 2021. “It seems to me that being a pop star is almost like being in a type of prison. You have to be a good girl.”
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If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, help is available. Call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free and confidential counseling.
Before her tragic death on July 26, 2023, O’Connor was married four times, with her most recent lasting just 16 days. Speaking to the Irish Sun, she once said, “I wish I hadn’t ever got married. Silly cow. Four times. What a twat. Now I can’t ever get married once and properly. Anyway, I look stupid in dresses. And clearly, I’m a crap wife.” She added: “I think I was trying to be normal. Kind of like a gay person trying to insist on being straight. Of course there’s nothing at all normal about marrying people you hardly f—king know. Luckily they were nice guys. Thank f—k.” O’Connor maintained that her late son Shane, who tragically took his own life at 17, was the true love of her life. Here’s a look over Sinead O’Connor’s four husbands.
A list of all the men she married.
Barry Herridge – 2011 to 2011
Her most short-lived marriage, Barry Herridge was a psychotherapist from Ireland who helped O’Connor during the period when her son was ill. They married in a drive-thru chapel in Las Vegas on her 45th birthday (see photos here) but called it quits a mere 16 days later and that was the last romantic relationship she’d ever have. She told People in 2021, “The last man that touched my body took out my reproductive system. I’ve not let a man touch my body in any way since.”
Steve Cooney – 2010 to 2011
It’s understood that O’Connor had a long-lasting friendship with the Australian musician Steve Cooney before it turned romantic. Before joining her band as a guitarist, Cooney was a key member of Stockton’s Wing, where he played bass, and was also a member of duo Cooney & Begley with musician Seamus Begley, which played many venues in the Kerry Gaeltacht. Their wedding announcement was published in a statement to O’Connor’s website, reading: “We who run this site are very happy to announce the marriage of Steve Cooney and Sinéad O’Connor has taken place this morning,” the short statement read.
After eight months, the couple split, with O’Connor citing media’s focus on her weight caused much pain in their relationship. “I didn’t mind putting on weight — the problem is strangers telling me I was fat. That was hard on our marriage,” she told the Irish Times at the time. “Steve is lovely so it’s not his fault but mine… it was an extremely happy marriage… I’m heartbroken about it breaking up,” she said.
Nick Sommerlad – 2001 to 2002
O’Connor’s second husband was Nick Sommerlad, a relative of Queen Silvia of Sweden. They’d been dating for a few months prior to his proposal in 2001 and they were introduced by a mutual friend while Sommerland was working for the Press Association.
“A journalist friend of mine and hers introduced us. We have been going out since February,” he told the Irish Sun at the time. “I am delighted and so is she,” he added. They split after 11 months together and O’Connor swore she’d “never marry again”, according to the Irish Examiner.
John Reynolds – 1989 to 1991
John Reynolds and O’Connor met when he collaborated on a few of her albums as a drummer and producer, including her first, The Lion and the Cobra released in 1987. They tied the knot in 1987 and had one child together, a son named Jake.
Reynolds and O’Connor ended their marriage in 1991. In 2016, O’Connor mysteriously disappeared later to be found safe at a local hotel, after which she penned a scathing letter to Reynolds and their son, per Billboard. She wrote, “You tell that evil son of ours that a person who suffers from two f—ing medical conditions of which the symptoms include suicidal compulsion isn’t being manipulative if while he is being a f—ing chauvinist bully like his grandfather they say they’re going to or feel like killing themselves.” She alleged they “abandoned” her “for being suicidal” and threatened to take them both to court. “I will see you all in court. I want damages. I have been unable to work,” she wrote. “I have lost last year’s income and this year’s. I have had enormous medical expenses, and enormous trauma because of your torturing of me. As I said… We are all going to court and we are gonna have this out in full public for once and for all.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, help is available. Call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free and confidential counseling.
Blessed with a singular voice and a fiery temperament, Sinéad O’Connor rose to massive fame in the late 1980s and 1990s with a string of gold records. By the time she was twenty, she was world-famous—living a rock star life out loud. From her trademark shaved head to her 1992 appearance on Saturday Night Live when she tore up Pope John Paul II’s photograph, Sinéad has fascinated and outraged millions. In Rememberings , O’Connor recounts her painful tale of growing up in Dublin in a dysfunctional, abusive household. Inspired by a brother’s Bob Dylan records, she escaped into music. She relates her early forays with local Irish bands; we see Sinéad completing her first album while eight months pregnant, hanging with Rastas in the East Village, and soaring to unimaginable popularity with her cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2U.”
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