Sinead O'Connor has ended her fourth marriage after only 16 days, it has been revealed yesterday (December 27).

The singer tied the knot with Barry Herridge in the back of a pink Cadillac at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas on December 8 this month, the same day as her 45th birthday, but has now announced that the marriage ended on December 24.

В O'Connor revealed that the marriage had ended on her official website and wrote a lengthy post about the reasons for the union's demise.

She wrote: "From the moment myself and my husband got together not long ago, there was intense pressure placed upon him by certain people in his life, not to be involved with me. These were people who had never met me but had formed opinions of me based on what they read about 'Sinead 'O'Connor' in the media."

She continued: "Entitled as they are to their opinions about me, many perhaps well deserved, there was no righteousness on anyone's part to put my husband through what he was put through as a result of his desire to be with me and to marry me and as a result of his actually marrying me."

O'Connor then detailed that her former husband had felt pressure from those close to him to break off the union and said that she believed Herridge would have been losing "too much to bear" if they'd stayed together.

She said: "Within 3 hours of the ceremony being over the marriage was kyboshed by the behaviour of certain people in my husband's life. It became apparent to me that if he were to stay with me he would be losing too much to bear. And that being with me was not going to serve him positively, career wise or any other wise. I saw his life leave him because of how people close to him reacted. And I can't take anyone's life. And a woman wants to be a joy to her husband. So if you love someone? Set them free."

The singer spoke positively of Herridge and said that she still believed he was "a wonderful man", but also that they had made a mistake by getting married when they did.

She said of this: "He is a wonderful man. I love him very much. I'm sorry I'm not a more regular woman. I truly believe though it is painful to admit, we made a mistake rushing into getting married, for altruistic reasons, and weren't aware or prepared for the consequences on my husband's life and the lives of those close to him. He has been terribly unhappy and I have therefore ended the marriage. I think he is too nice to do so. And too nice to trap."

O'Connor has been married three times before - to producer John Reynolds, journalist Nicholas Sommerlad and to Steve Cooney, whom she divorced earlier this year.

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