Sinead O'Connor recalls bizarre 'violent' encounter with Prince in 1991

Irish singer Sinead O'Connor at Prince's party at Camden Palace in 1988. Photo / Getty Images

In her upcoming new memoir, Irish singer Sinead O'Connor - who goes by the name of Shuhada Davitt after converting to Islam – discusses her struggles with fame and recalls a very unsettling encounter with pop superstar, Prince, at his "macabre Hollywood mansion" in 1991.

The 54-year-old Irish singer/songwriter scored the biggest hit of her career in 1990 with her cover of the late pop icon's song 'Nothing Compares 2 U' and she has claimed she was summoned to his home for a meeting with the 'Purple Rain' hitmaker in 1991.

Sinead O'Connor claims that Prince invited her to his home in 1991 where he lectured her on her swearing and hit her with a pillowcase filled with something "hard". Photo / Getty Images

In an extract from her upcoming new memoir 'Rememberings', published in an article by The New York Times, Sinead claims Prince "chastised her for swearing in interviews, harangued his butler to serve her soup though she repeatedly refused it, and sweetly suggested a pillow fight, only to thump her with something hard he'd slipped into his pillowcase".

Her treatment at his hands was so bad that Sinead "escaped on foot in the middle of the night" only for Prince to stalk her with his car, ultimately leaping out of the vehicle and chasing her down the highway.

Recalling the alleged experience with Prince - who died in April 2016 at age 57 - Sinead told The New York Times: "You've got to be crazy to be a musician, but there's a difference between being crazy and being a violent abuser of women."

Self proclaimed "protest singer", Sinead O'Connor converted to Islam in 2018, changing her name to Shuhada Davitt. Photo / Getty Images

Despite the encounter and Prince's disdain for her, Sinead is still very proud of her version of the song, which she has claimed ownership of.

She said: "As far as I'm concerned, it's my song."

Sinead believes that her success with 'Nothing Compares 2 U' actually harmed her music career, because the song made her into a pop star, when in her mind she was a protest singer and punk.

The Emperor's New Clothes singer - who famously tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II when she appeared as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 1992 - writes in her book: "I feel that having a No. 1 record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track."

Sinead O'Connor (pictured here in '91) says that the success of Nothing Compares 2U was actually bad for her career as it turned to her into a "pop star". Photo / Getty Images

Explaining how she felt after topping the charts, she told the publication: "The media was making me out to be crazy because I wasn't acting like a pop star was supposed to act.

"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."

This is not the first time the Jealous singer has discussed her scary encounter with Prince. In 2019 she told Good Morning Britain: "We did meet once but we didn't get on very well, we tried to beat each other up. Well, it was more he tried to beat me up and I was defending myself."

While it sounded jovial at first, O'Connor went on to clarify: "It's not a joke, it's not a joke at all, it was a very frightening experience actually."

More recently O'Connor has made headlines for her mental health struggles which led to her cancelling a 2021 tour. The singer posted to Twitter that she was postponing her scheduled shows in order to seek year-long treatment for "trauma and addiction".