What Is Sinéad O'Connor's Cause of Death?

Sinéad O'Connor died on July 26, 2023, at 56 years old.

The singer's cause of death wasn't initially reported, but a coroner has since announced that the Irish singer died from natural causes. “This is to confirm that Ms O’Connor died of natural causes,” a spokesman for Southwark Coroners Court told told the Daily Mail in a statement released Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. “The coroner has therefore ceased their involvement in her death.”

At the time of O'Connor's death, her family said in a statement to The Irish Times: "It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time."

London’s Metropolitan police thereafter said that the death was not being treated as “suspicious.” In a statement released to press on July 27, police said officers were called to the scene of O'Connor's death on a report of an “unresponsive woman.”

“Officers attended,” the statement said. “A 56-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Next of kin have been notified. The death is not being treated as suspicious. A file will be prepared for the coroner.”

Throngs of mourning fans paid tribute to the Irish singer by lining the streets of her former hometown—the coastal town of Bray south of Dublin—as her funeral procession passed by the waterfront following her funeral on Aug. 8.

Related: How Much Did Sinéad O'Connor's Controversies Cost Her?

What is Sinéad O'Connor's cause of death?

Sinéad O'Connor died from natural causes. “This is to confirm that Ms O’Connor died of natural causes,” a spokesman for Southwark Coroners Court told told the Daily Mail in a statement released Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. “The coroner has therefore ceased their involvement in her death.”

Bob Geldof, a good friend of O'Connor, said his final texts—just a couple weeks before her death—showcased the singer's dramatic mood swings often associated with bipolar disorder.

“Many, many times Sinead was full of a terrible loneliness and a terrible despair," he told a crowd at the Cavan Calling festival in Ireland, via The Mirror. "Some of her texts were laden with desperation and despair and some were ecstatically happy. She was like that.”

What illness did Sinéad O'Connor have?

O'Connor told Oprah Winfrey in 2007 that she had bipolar disorder. After several years in and out of different mental health treatment facilities and hospitals, O'Connor revealed to The New York Times in 2021 that she was also diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder.

O'Connor also suffered from gallstones and endometriosis. She underwent a radical hysterectomy in 2015 to manage the latter, but her mental health suffered afterward—an increasingly common side effect for many women. She told The Guardian that she was suicidal at the time, explaining, "Nobody had explained to me or my family that she’s going to be a crazy bitch because we took her ovaries for no reason. So the children were terrified of me. [I was] angry. Raging. I was furious. I was completely gone."

"You can never predict what might trigger the [PTSD]. I describe myself as a rescue dog: I'm fine until you put me in a situation that even slightly smells like any of the trauma I went through, then I flip my lid," she explained to PEOPLE in 2021. "I manage very well because I've been taught brilliant skills. There was a lot of therapy. It's about focusing on the things that bring you peace as opposed to what makes you feel unstable."

Related: Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" Backstory

What did Sinéad O'Connor go through?

To put it simply, O'Connor went through a lot throughout her life, none of which she deserved.

O'Connor's parents divorced when she was a child, and her mother was physically, sexually and psychologically abusive. O'Connor moved in with her father, but her behavioral issues (including shoplifting and truancy) landed her in a Magdalene asylum when she was a teenager. When O'Connor was 18, her mother died, and she told The Guardian in 2021 she never got past it, because despite her mother's abuse, she still loved her.

"When I look at photos of the woman she was before she got married, she was a joyful, gleaming, happy young woman, and I feel something possessed her," O'Connor said. "It was the devil in her."

Related: Stars Pay Tribute to Sinéad O'Connor After Her Death

In her career, O'Connor suffered as well. Though her cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U" was her biggest hit in her career, she alleged that Prince once locked her in his home and offered to have a pillow fight—and hid a hard object in his pillowcase. O'Connor said when she managed to run away and off of his property, Prince followed her in his car.

"I think he would have beat the s—t out of me [if I didn't get away]," she said, adding that the scariest moment was "when he was sitting on a chair by the front door and he wouldn't let me out. His irises dissolved and his eyes just went white. It was the scariest thing I’ve seen in my life."

Related: Sinéad O'Connor Shared Major Album Update 2 Weeks Before Her Death

In October 1992, O'Connor performed an a cappella rendition of Bob Marley's "War" on Saturday Night Live. During the song, she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II in protest of the Catholic Church's rampant sexual abuse of children—almost a decade before the rest of the world knew or cared about the offenses. She was banned from SNL and was largely blacklisted from the entertainment industry as a whole afterward, an experience she later said was traumatic for her as well. (To date, CNN anchor Jake Tapper remains one of the only public figures to ever recognize that O'Connor was right all along.)

O'Connor expressed the most pain after the tragic death of her 17-year-old son, Shane, by suicide in January 2022. Weeks before her own passing, O'Connor tweeted a series of sobbing emojis, writing, "#lostmy17yrOldSonToSuicidein2022. Been living as undead night creature since. . He was the love of my life, the lamp of my soul. We were one soul in two halves."

"He was the only person who ever loved me unconditionally," she added. "I am lost in the bardo without him."

Related: Sinéad O'Connor Spoke Out About Son's Tragic Death Weeks Before Her Own

Did Sinéad O'Connor have fibromyalgia?

O'Connor suffered from fibromyalgia, a condition that led her to step away from music temporarily in 2002. Fibromyalgia symptoms include chronic physical pain and tenderness throughout the body (though individual patients may experience more severe pain in some areas than others), as well as fatigue, brain fog and trouble sleeping.

"Fibromyalgia is not curable, but it's manageable," O'Connor told Hot Press. "I have a high pain threshold, so that helps—it's the tiredness part that I have difficulty with. You get to know your patterns and limits, though, so you can work and plan around it. It is made worse, obviously, by stress. So you have to try to keep life quiet and peaceful."

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