Sinead O'Connor leaves children £1.7m as she urges them to 'milk' her music in final wishes
27 January 2025, 16:41
Sinead O’Connor reportedly left her children £1.7 million and encouraged them in her will to “milk” the sales of her music.
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The Irish singer was found dead in her London flat aged 56 in July 2023, 18 months after her son Shane, 17, took his own life.
Irish probate records show O’Connor’s estate was worth £1.7 million, a figure which was reduced to £1.4 million after debts, funeral costs and legal fees, according to a report in The Sun.
Her ex-husband, music producer John Reynolds, was named as the executor of the estate.
The document, which was signed by O’Connor in 2013, said: “My children can dispense my ashes as they see fit.
“I direct that after my death, and at the discretion of any of my children who are then over 18, my albums are to be released so as to ‘milk it for what it’s worth’.”
Having signed the document prior to her conversion to Islam, the singer asked to be dressed in priest clothing in her coffin and be buried with a Hebrew bible.
She had planned for Shane to inherit her religious regalia while her youngest child, Yeshua Bonadio, 18, was to be given her collection of guitars.
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O’Connor’s cause of death was revealed to be asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Reynolds formally registered her death last Wednesday in Lambeth, and it was certified by Inner South London senior coroner Julian Morris.
The singer - who still gets 4.8M monthly listeners on Spotify - had been found “unresponsive” after police were called to her flat in Herne Hill.
She was laid to rest at a ceremony in the Irish town of Bray last August, with Bob Geldof and Bono among those paying tribute at her funeral.
Following the death of her son in 2022 she was briefly admitted to hospital after posting online that she had “decided to follow” his path.
In her last Tweet, O’Connor posted a photo of Shane and said: “Been living as undead night creature since. He was the love of my life, the lamp of my soul.
“We were one soul in two halves. He was the only person who ever loved me unconditionally. I am lost in the bardo without him.”
Days before her death Sinead had written: “Losing a kid isn’t good for the soul.”
