Irish Singer Sinéad O'Connor Reveals Prince Chased Her With His Car & Was Violent With Her in His Home | She Ran and Hid "Behind a Tree"

Most of us would remember the pop star Prince as a phenomenal performer, who faced multiple personal tragedies before dying from a fentanyl overdose. However, there is more to that story as Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor reveals. O'Connor became famous in the 1990s after tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II while performing on Saturday Night Live to protest against child abuse in the Catholic Church.

The one-hit-wonder got blacklisted after the incident and was dubbed "crazy." The 54-year-old's point of view of her career also likely differs from the public's. "I feel that having a No. 1 record derailed my career," she wrote in her memoir regarding Nothing Compares 2 U, per the New York Times. "And my tearing the photo put me back on the right track," she added.

She had gained popularity after she sang a cover of the late pop icon's song Nothing Compares 2 U. She claims that she was summoned to his home in 1991 for a meeting. However, the meeting with the I Wanna Be Your Lover singer was anything but pleasant.

Prince reportedly terrorized her in his home and assaulted her. The 54-year-old singer wrote in her memoir that he scolded her for swearing in interviews when she went to meet him at his Hollywood mansion. He also reportedly berated his butler and forced him to serve her soup, even though she said no to it repeatedly. Then, he "sweetly" suggested that they have a pillow fight.

However, he assaulted her with something hard which he kept hidden in the pillowcase. She wrote that she ran away from his home in the middle of the night on foot, but the harrowing incident doesn't end there. "He stalked her with his car, leapt out, and chased her around the highway," per the Times.

The singer used this example to show how being labeled "crazy" meant different things for her and Prince. He was regarded in a positive way: "You’ve got to be crazy to be a musician" but she said, adding, "But there’s a difference between being crazy and being a violent abuser of women."

"The media was making me out to be crazy because I wasn’t acting like a pop star was supposed to act," she said. "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," she added.

She was also unbothered after being allegedly harassed by the man who wrote her most famous song. "As far as I’m concerned," O’Connor said. "It’s my song," she added.

In a previous interview, she said a slightly different version of the incident. "We tried to beat each other up," O’Connor said, as per FarOut. "This is not a joke, it was a really frightening experience," she added. 

"He was uncomfortable that I wasn’t his protégé and he wanted me to be. He was wanting me to be a protégé of his and ordered that I don’t swear in my interviews. I told him where he could go. He went upstairs and got a pillow and he had something hard in the pillow. I ran out of his house, hiding behind a tree. We meet on the highway in Malibu at five in the morning – I’m spitting at him, he’s trying to punch me. I had to go ring someone’s doorbell, which my father always told me to do if I was in a situation like that," she added.

The singer also said that the late pop icon was "into some pretty dark drugs at the time," and said, "I’m not the only one he went at. One of the girls in his band was in the hospital with broken ribs at the time."

References:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/arts/music/sinead-oconnor-rememberings.html

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/sinead-oconnor-prince-beat-up-women/

Cover image source: Getty Images | Photo by (L)Stephen Lovekin (R)Kevin Winter