Sinéad O’Connor calls out “offensive and misogynistic” interview on BBC Radio

An interviewer asked the singer to comment on a critic's description of her as "the crazy lady in pop's attic".

Sinéad O’Connor has said that she will never appear on BBC Radio's Women's Hour, after finding it to be an "offensive and misogynistic" experience. O'Connor, whose legal name is Shuhada Sadaqat, sat down with Emma Barnett earlier this week to discuss her memoir, Rememberings. At one point, Barnett asked the Irish singer about music critic Neil McCormick's description of her as "the crazy lady in pop's attic". She replied: "I think it's a bit extreme to make the Jane Eyre comparison. I don't think I've ever been perceived as 'the crazy lady in pop's attic', as represented in Jane Eyre. "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." Following the interview, O'Connor said that she would never appear on the show again. On Twitter, she described it as "extremely offensive and even misogynistic". "One abusive and invalidating question or statement after another: 'madwoman in the attic'," she wrote. "At that point I should have ended it. I will absolutely never do Women's Hour again." In a follow-up tweet, she apologised if she "accidentally offended Jamaican men". During the interview, the singer described herself as being "like a Jamaican father". O'Connor tweeted: "Also, apologies if I accidentally offended Jamaican men. I was referring to specific friends of mine in the music business. Jamaican people are my favourite people on this earth and Jamaican male musicians my biggest inspiration." BBC subsequently issued a statement, addressing the singer's criticisms. They said: "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."