IAN Bailey claims that Sinéad O'Connor has urged him to check into rehab after the two met up for an interview last week.
Manchester-born Bailey, the self-confessed prime suspect in the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, says that he received a text message from O'Connor on Saturday evening, telling him to get treatment.
"Sinéad texted me saying: 'You are your own worst enemy, you need rehab more than any human being I have ever met. You dislike yourself so much, it's killing you'," Bailey told the Irish Sun.
"No, no, no," Bailey said in reference to Amy Winehouse's 2006 hit song Rehab, "Sinéad is wrong. I've been under so much pressure in the last few weeks with the two documentaries, breaking up with my partner and trying to find a new place to live. But I will get through."
The two met outside a restaurant in Glengarriff, Co. Cork on Wednesday to discuss - among other things - Bailey's links to the death of Ms Toscan du Plantier.
Ian BaileyO'Connor described the British former journalist as "charming while sober" but "frightening" after a few drinks.
The Nothing Compares 2 U singer said that Bailey also got "quite aggressive" when she asked him a number of challenging questions about Sophie.
Though Bailey, who has always professed his innocence, vehemently denies Sinéad's version of events.
Ms Toscan du Plantier, a French filmmaker, was killed outside her home near the town of Schull, Co. Cork on December 23, 1996. She died after having her head smashed in by a concrete slab found on her driveway.
Bailey, who lived a stone's throw away from Sophie's house at the time, was arrested twice by gardaí in the months following her death, but was never charged.
The 64-year-old was convicted in absentia for Sophie's murder by a French court in 2019, though numerous extradition requests have been rejected in Ireland.
