Names and faces
Sinead O’Connor made an emotional plea for help from her family and opened up about her mental illness in a Facebook video posted from a New Jersey motel where she had been living. The video is the latest public glimpse of the 50- yearold Irish singer’s ongoing struggle with mental health problems. In the 12- minute video posted Thursday, O’Connor says that she was staying alive for the sake of others, like her psychiatrist, and if it were up to her, she’d “be gone.” “I’m fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting — like all the millions and millions that I know I’m one of — to stay alive every day,” she said in the video. O’Connor lamented what she described as a lack of support from loved ones, saying that “strangers on Facebook” are kinder to her than her own family. She asked her adult children and their fathers to make an effort to take her home to Ireland. “It should not be acceptable to any man who knows me and claims to love and care about me that I’m still sitting here after two years and I’m begging … to be brought home,” she said through tears. O’Connor said she was living in a New Jersey Travelodge and later posted the address of a Travelodge in South Hackensack. South Hackensack police Capt. Robert Kaiser said Tuesday that officers conducted a welfare check but O’Connor wasn’t in her room at the time. He said she is no longer staying there and police don’t know where she is currently living. A follow- up Facebook post on O’Connor’s page late Monday, said to be made on the singer’s behalf, said the singer is safe and not suicidal. “She is surrounded by love and receiving the best of care,” the post read.
The Dukes of Hazzard star Tom Wopat says he’ll be taking time to address his ongoing struggle with substance abuse after his arrest in Massachusetts on indecent assault and battery charges. Last week, Wopat pleaded innocent to grabbing the buttocks of a female member of a local production of 42nd Street he was supposed to star in. The 65- year- old Tony Award- nominated actor, who played Luke Duke on the 1980s television show The Dukes of Hazzard, was supposed to play Julian Marsh in 42nd Street at the Waltham- based Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston but has been since replaced. Police said they found what they suspect to be cocaine in the actor’s possession. In a statement Tuesday, Wopat expressed regret for the “unfortunate events” but denied any wrongdoing. In saying his ongoing struggle with substances abuse “certainly contributed,” the statement adds that Wopat “definitely understands that sobriety is the sole course for a successful future and will take immediate steps to achieve it.”