Dolories O’Riordan, the lead singer of ’90s rock band The Cranberries, has died suddenly at the age of 46.
O’Riordan, a native of Ireland, was in London for a short recording session.
“The lead singer with the Irish band The Cranberries was in London for a short recording session. No further details are available at this time. Family members are devastated to hear the breaking news and have requested privacy at this very difficult time,” read the statement from her publicist.
Celebrities and other bands, like Irish rock band Kodaline, took to Twitter to mourn the singer’s passing. The remaining members of The Cranberries also tweeted their condolences.
O’Riordan was only in her teens when she auditioned to be lead singer for The Cranberries. Together, the band released five albums, and they were known internationally for their hit songs Zombie and Linger. The band won multiple awards during their heyday in the 1990s.
O’Riordan sometimes spoke of her abusive upbringing and her battle with bipolar disorder.
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In 2014, in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, O’Riordan revealed that she suffered through four years of rape and sexual assault as a child, grappled with suicidal tendencies and was trying to work through depression. She said in the interview that she also suffered from anorexia as a result of the abuse.
“It manifested itself in my behaviour and the pathologies I began to develop in my early adult life, such as my eating disorder, depression and eventually the breakdowns,” she said at the time. She also admitted that she “tried to overdose” on drugs in 2012.
In 2017, The Cranberries announced a tour with both European and U.S. dates, but in May the band cancelled the remainder of the tour, citing O’Riordan’s unspecified health problems. (As of this writing, the band’s official site is down, presumably from a massive bump in traffic.)
Just before Christmas, O’Riordan posted to Facebook, saying she felt “good.”
In 2014, O’Riordan and her husband of 20 years, Don Burton, divorced. The pair had three children together.
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