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Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Sinead O'Connor apologized Wednesday for claiming Arsenio Hall supplied Prince with drugs. The 50-year-old Irish singer retracted her comments about the 61-year-old American comedian and Prince in a statement to TMZ after facing a defamation lawsuit from Hall.
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"Sinead has retracted and apologized for statements she made about Arsenio last year, which prompted his defamation lawsuit against her," O'Connor and Hall said in a joint statement.
"I apologize for my Facebook posts about Arsenio to the extent that anyone thought I was accusing him of acting as Prince's drug dealer and supplying him with illegal hard drugs, or insinuating that Arsenio had something to do with Prince's death," the singer added. "I sincerely apologize because those statements would be false, and I retract them unequivocally."
Hall's publicist told ABC News the comedian will dismiss the lawsuit "now that Arsenio's reputation has been restored by Sinead's unequivocal retraction and apology." Hall had sued the singer in May after she called him out in a Facebook post.
"Two words for the DEA investigating where prince got his drugs over the decades.... Arsenio Hall (AKA Prince's and Eddie Murphy's [expletive])," she wrote at the time. "Arsenio I've reported you to the Carver County Sherrif's office. Expect their call."
Prince died at age 57 on Apr. 21, and was later found to have died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a powerful opioid painkiller. Hall was among those to mourn the "Purple Rain" singer's death online.
"The world lost an unrivaled artist. I lost a FRIEND ... who I could ALWAYS, depend on. Rest in peace Prince Rogers Nelson," he wrote on Instagram in April.
