Sinead O'Connor's Non-Suicide Attempt

by Joal Ryan
March 26, 1999, 9 a.m. PT

Sinéad O'Connor hastily downed a handful of tranquilizers last week, but it wasn't a suicide 
attempt. To which the note she left behind (just in case) attested.

And so goes the life (and turmoil) of Ireland's clarion-voiced pop star.

In a new interview with London's Daily Mail, the "Nothing Compares 2 U" singer, now 32, 
confirms much of what has been buzzed about for weeks--including that bit with the pills.

For starters, O'Connor affirms that the bitter child-custody battle that pitted her against 
an ex-lover is over, with her crying, "Uncle" and turning over three-year-old daughter Roison 
to Irish newspaper columnist John Waters.

But the ugly matter didn't end until O'Connor got in a few last licks - or spittle. The Daily 
Mail says O'Connor spat in Waters' face in court last week. In January, she blamed the writer 
for prompting child-welfare officials to target her in a probe.

The custody fight led O'Connor to swallow a touch of Valium, she says. But she stopped short 
of characterizing it as a suicide attempt.

According to O'Connor, she wrote a note that read: "I would kill myself and that I hoped I 
died. But it wasn't really a suicide attempt."