rish singer-songwriter Sinead O'Connor said she would never again go on the BBC program Woman's Hour after feeling that a recent interview she had with its presenter, Emma Barnett, was offensive.
“Actually found the interview with @Emmabarnett extremely offensive and even misogynistic. One abusive and invalidating question or statement after another: 'madwoman in the attic'. At that point I should have ended it,” O'Connor said via her Twitter account on Tuesday.
O’Connor went on the radio show to promote her new autobiography, Rememberings. The awkward conversation began when Barnett talked about O’Connor’s mental health history and the media coverage of it. Then when Barnett asked about O’Connor’s response to The Telegraph music critic Neil McCormick, who branded her as "the crazy lady in pop's attic", the conversation became more intense.
“I was very struck by an interview with Neil McCormick, the music critic for The Telegraph, he said your reputation as ‘the crazy lady in pop’s attic’ has pursued you. I wonder what you make of that?” Barnett said on the radio show.
O’Connor responded that it was quite extreme to compare her to Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte's 1847 novel. "I don't think I've ever been perceived as the crazy lady in pop's attic [...] It's not like I'm trying to attack people with knives or trying to strangle people while I'm walking around in my nightdress," O’Connor said on the radio show.
Music News reported Barnett is yet to publicly comment on the controversy. A BBC spokesperson has since addressed the incident, as quoted by metro.co.uk. “During an interview about her new book, Sinead O’Connor was talking about her mental health and was asked what she made of a comment by a music critic reviewing her book in recent days.”
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