Sinead O’Connor has revealed how she was handed Class A drugs after taking her new drug-counselor husband Barry Herridge on a marijuana hunt on their wedding night.
Sinead O’Connor says her fourth marriage was in trouble from the start and the wild search on the mean streets of Las Vegas led to their eventual split 16 days later.
The 45-year-old Irish singer insists she still loves Barry Herridge, 38, but says she ended their relationship on Christmas Eve because of the pain he was in.
Sinead O’Connor and Barry Herridge met online four months ago after he responded to a plea by unlucky-in-love singer asking for potential suitors to come forward.
The couple married on December 8 in a quickie wedding at the famous Little White Chapel in the Nevada state.
Sinead O'Connor has revealed how she was handed Class A drugs after taking her new drug-counselor husband Barry Herridge on a marijuana hunt on their wedding night
Sinead o’Connor told The Sun that she took Barry Herridge on a search for cannabis afterwards.
“We ended up in a cab in some place that was quite dangerous.
“I wasn’t scared – but he’s a drugs counselor. What was I thinking?
“Then I was handed a load of crack. Barry was very frightened – that kind of messed everything up a bit really.”
The purchase or possession of cannabis is an offence in Nevada, subject to a fine of up to $600 for a first offence.
However, far more serious might be the repercussions for her music career.
For the U.S. authorities routinely refuse travel and work visas to those who have committed “crimes of moral turpitude”.
These crimes include “a violation (or conspiracy or attempt to violate) any law or regulations of a State, the United States or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance”.
In 1992, Sinead O’Connor appeared to advocate marijuana smoking and in a 1999 Irish Times interview, the singer admitted to smoking “weed”, saying: “I do not take drugs – I smoke a little weed now and again, which I told the social workers and they laughed.
“I do not take drink or any other drugs. Everybody knows that.”
Sinead O’Connor said her latest marriage was also sabotaged early on by the “interference of certain people”.
“It felt like I was living in a coffin. It was going to be a coffin for both of us and I saw him crushed.
“The whole reason I ended it was out of respect and love for the man.”
The mother-of-four says she will never marry again and may not even date anyone.
Sinead O’Connor this week emerged from her home looking tired, stressed and grey-haired. Gone was the pretty pink frock from her wedding – and instead she came to the door in nothing but a towel before hurriedly changing into a T-shirt and jeans.
Two days ago, the eccentric Irish singer Sinead O’Connor announced she would wed her unknown boyfriend of three months in a ceremony on Thursday.
Sinead O’Connor tied the knot for the fourth time in a quickie Las Vegas wedding on her 45th birthday yesterday.
The singer walked down the aisle with Irish therapist Barry Herridge, who she met online, at the famous Little White Wedding Chapel in Nevada’s Sin City.
The wedding ceremony lasted just 15 minutes and the couple invited no guests – even Sinead O’Connor’s four children – apart from the cameramen.
Sinead O’Connor dressed unusually girly and looked to have lost weight, looking more like her Nothing Compares 2 U heyday in the 1990s.
She wore a strapless pastel pink maxi dress and chunky pink metallic and silver heels.
Sinead O’Connor failed to conceal her numerous tattoos, including a massive design on her chest, and is still sporting her trademark shaved head.
Sinead O’Connor tied the knot for the fourth time with Irish therapist Barry Herridge in a quickie Las Vegas wedding on her 45th birthday
Barry Herridge wore a suit over a pink shirt that matched Sinead O’Connor’s dress and had a red rose in his lapel that matched her bouquet.
The couple looked smitten with one another, sharing a passionate kiss for the cameras and staring into each other’s eyes as they walked sown the isle after being pronounced husband and wife.
The newlyweds cuddled up on a pink Cadillac – reminiscent of Elvis Presley’s iconic car – before heading to a hotel in the gambling capital of America.
Sinead O’Connor even shed a few tears as she sat with her new husband before they headed to a hotel for their wedding night.
The singer has only been dating Barry Herridge, who works as a counselor for people with addiction problems in Dublin, for three months.
Barry Herridge replied after Sinead O’Connor wrote on her blog in September that she was “sex-starved” and asked potential suitors to apply online.
“Barry sent me this wonderful email, which just took my heart away,” Sinead O’Connor told the Irish Independent before flying out from Heathrow to the U.S yesterday.
“It had to be him… I had no intention of getting married again but Barry was extremely persuasive. He proposed to me on every single date we have had since August. He is extremely persuasive – and other unprintable things.”
Sinead O’Connor and Barry Herridge met up at a coffee shop and apparently “talked for hours”.
He revealed the contents of the email to the paper.
“I was getting off a train at Connolly Station one morning when I saw this woman acting strangely on the platform,” Barry Herridge said.
“At first I didn’t know what she was doing, and then I realized she was playing hopscotch. It wasn’t Sinead but a business woman in a suit and in her 30s, just having a bit of fun.
“I wondered why more women that age weren’t doing the same thing? And it struck me that this was exactly what Sinead was doing with her search for love, having fun, and I told Sinead about this woman in my first email.”
Barry Herridge added: “I love Sinead more than anyone I have ever met, or anybody I will ever meet. I am going to look after her.”
Sinead O’Connor said she didn’t want a big ceremony.
“I’ve been married before, but I’ve never had my dream wedding in Vegas. I wanted to do it there because it’s casual, quick, not religious and, most of all, very romantic.
“People always complain, <<you never invited me to your wedding>>, but I prefer casual weddings. I’m so happy.”
The newlyweds have no time for a honeymoon as Sinead O’Connor is due back in Dublin tomorrow to attend the aftershow party for a concert marking the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International.
The Little White Chapel has been the venue for several celebrity weddings, including that between Britney Spears and childhood friend Jason Alexander in 2004.
Other notable ceremonies include the wedding of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore in 1987, that between Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow in 1966, and Judy Garland and Mark Herron in 1965.
Sinead O’Connor announced on her blog on Wednesday she was marrying Barry Herridge in an “undisclosed location”, although reports speculated they would be walking down the aisle in Las Vegas.
The singer wrote: “With enormous joy myself and my beloved boyfriend Barry Herridge will be getting married tomorrow, December 8th 2011 at <<an un-disclosed location>> in my absolute dream wedding ceremony.
“We will post a photo or two here on the site as soon as possible afterward. Very happy girl. : )”
Sinead O’Connor also posted a picture up of the couple beaming at the camera.
She kept the happy news quiet when she appeared on the Ian Dempsey breakfast radio show on Today FM the day before, telling him she had no gossip to share.
But Barry Herridge rang back into the show on Wednesday morning to reveal all to the host about the wedding.
Ian Dempsey wrote on his Twitter page following their chat: “So Sinead O’Connor was holding back yesterday. Boyfriend Barry Herridge got back to us today to reveal that they will wed tomorrow.
“And it’s Sinead’s birthday tomorrow too. Congrats to them both. And Sinead’s new album is sounding great too.”
Sinead O’Connor shocked the nation by writing a series of candid blog posts on her website earlier this year, detailing specific requirements she was looking for in a man.
The singer wrote in September that she was in “desperate need of a very sweet sex-starved man”, but specified that they “must be no younger than 44, must not be named Brian or Nigel, must be blind enough to think I’m gorgeous, has to be employed and he has to like his mother”.
And it seems Sinead O’Connor is found her perfect partner in Barry Herridge after a whirlwind romance.
Sinead O’Connor has been married three times before – including to music producer John Reynolds, journalist Nicholas Sommerlad and most recently to Steve Cooney, who she wed in July 2010, but divorced in April this year.
Sinead O’Connor has four children from various relationships.
