Sinead O’Connor heads to rehab for a YEAR after death of close friend drove her to drugs

Sinead O’Connor heads to rehab for a YEAR after death of close friend drove her to drugs

Troubled singer Sinead O’Connor is taking a break from performing as she goes into a year-long rehabilitation programme.

The Irish star, 53, told her fans she had to postpone gigs scheduled for 2021.

She added: ‘If I take this time to heal, I will be fit for a lifetime of touring. If I don’t, I won’t.’

The Islam convert, who shot to fame with Nothing Compares 2 U in 1990, said this year had seen her lose a friend and deal with one of her four children falling ill.

Sinead O’Connor (pictured September 2019) said on Twitter on Tuesday she is postponing her shows until 2022 to go into a ‘one-year programme for trauma and addiction’

‘The child is thriving now thank god but the mom needs TLC’, she wrote on Twitter. Revealing she was taking time away for a ‘one-year trauma and addiction treatment program’, Miss O’Connor – who also uses the name Shuhada Sadaqat – wrote: ‘This year I lost someone beloved and has affected me so badly that I became briefly addicted to a drug other than weed. 

‘I had a very traumatic six years and this year was the end of it but now recovery starts.

‘This year I lost someone beloved and has affected me so badly that I became briefly addicted to a drug other than weed. I have been addicted to weed for 34 years. A lifetime.

 

The Nothing Compares 2 U hitmaker then pleaded with her fans to be 'supportive' and keep hold of their tickets for 2022, when she vowed to return with a new album

The Nothing Compares 2 U hitmaker then pleaded with her fans to be ‘supportive’ and keep hold of their tickets for 2022, when she vowed to return with a new album

The singer (pictured December 2019) described the music industry as an 'unforgiving place' for those who need to postpone shows 'due to emotional or mental health issues

The singer (pictured December 2019) described the music industry as an ‘unforgiving place’ for those who need to postpone shows ‘due to emotional or mental health issues

‘I grew up with a lot of trauma and abuse. I then went straight into the music business. And never learned really how to make a normal life. Never took proper time to heal. Wasn’t ready to either.’

The singer-songwriter has regularly documented her struggles with mental health problems over the years, often using social media as a sounding board for her woes.

In 2017, she changed her name to Magda Davitt before converting to Islam a year later and changed it again to Shuhada Sadaqat but continues to record and perform under her birth name.