John Waters was hospitalized over the weekend after suffering a possible mini-stroke – Ireland’s John Waters, that is.
According to a report on social media, the Irish John Waters went to the hospital after he started losing vision in one eye and was admitted for treatment and observation.
The Irish John Waters is a far-right newspaper columnist, author and social commentator who gained widespread attention for his rants against compulsory mask-wearing at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 1996, this John Waters had a daughter named Roisin with the late singer Sinead O’Connor, who famously tore up a photo of then-Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live” in 1992. They never married.
The Irish writer is one of several John Waterses around the world who make news and appear on Google Alerts from time to time. There’s a John Waters who’s an actor and musician in Australia; a Dr. John Waters who’s a pastor in Georgia; a John Waters who’s an architectural historian in Illinois; and even another Baltimore-based John Waters who was a window washer at the Charles Theatre for many years.
Word about the hospitalization of Ireland’s John Waters seems to have alarmed some fans of Baltimore-based writer and filmmaker John Waters, since both have large and somewhat overlapping followings on social media.
To clear up any confusion: The Irish writer and activist, John Augustine Waters, 71, is not related to Baltimore-born John Samuel Waters, 80. Baltimore’s John Waters was not in the hospital over the weekend and did not have a mini-stroke. The last time Baltimore’s Waters was hospitalized overnight was in 2016, when he missed his annual Christmas party for treatment of a kidney stone. The incident was covered by newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic.
“Since my party has always been private and off the record, I think I’ll just keep it that way,” John S. Waters said in an email message after his 2016 hospitalization. “I am fine and it’s a new concept in home entertainment – the host doesn’t show up. All is well.”
Baltimore’s Waters wrote about the reaction to his hospitalization in his 2019 book of essays, Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder.
After an article appeared in Baltimore Fishbowl, “the Baltimore Sun picked it up, and then I guess it was a slow news day because Page Six of The New York Post ran it and this Christmas stop-the-press article went viral, and then a tabloid in London featured it and finally it spread internationally. My agent in L.A. actually heard I had died!” he wrote. “But I was fine. I had only been in the hospital for one night!”
‘Unfounded rumours’
John S. Waters has been in the news recently because he’s appearing in five episodes of “American Horror Story: 13,” which debuts on Thursday on FX and Hulu. Earlier this month, John S. Waters hosted the final Camp John Waters gathering for superfans in Kent, Connecticut. An article about the event appeared in a recent edition of The Wall Street Journal.
News of the Irish writer’s hospitalization was posted by Richie Allen, an award-winning radio and television presenter and host of The Richie Allen Show in the United Kingdom. According to his website, The Richie Allen Show can be heard four days a week and is “the most listened to independent news radio show in the world.” Allen also hosts a Sunday program called “Sunday Morning Melodies” and has had John A. Waters as a guest on The Richie Allen Show numerous times.
“I’m chatting with the great John Waters this very minute,” Allen said in a post about John A. Waters on Facebook on Saturday. “The news is good. John began experiencing loss of vision in one of his eyes. He very cleverly researched it and went straight to hospital. The doctors think he had a mini-stroke. They’re keeping him in for a few days to ensure they know what they’re dealing with and how to treat it. He’s going to be fine. He told me that he was gutted to miss the Mise Eire festival [on Sept. 19 in Ireland]. He’s comfortable and typically philosophical.”
Allen added that he wanted to dispel any misinformation about the Irish John Waters and his condition.
“Spread the word as there are some unfounded rumours online,” he continued. “I love John. His voice is vital.”
Baltimore’s John Waters said in 2020 that he never met the far-right John Waters but he did get mistaken for him when he toured Ireland years ago and was interviewed by a journalist there.
“She was being so mean to me and I thought, “What is the matter with this woman?’ She was really hateful,” he said. “And then she started talking about Sinead O’Connor. I said, ‘Wait a minute. I wasn’t married to Sinead O’Connor!’ Then she went, “Oh my God, I’m sorry.’ She thought I was him.” After that, he said, the journalist “was very nice and wrote a nice article.”
‘Hide you in a bunker’
The health of Baltimore’s John Waters came up at his Camp finale, after two other 80-year-old entertainers, Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, both passed away on Aug. 25.
During a half-hour radio interview with Waters at the Connecticut campgrounds, Mona Dehghan of WFMU.org brought up the subject.
“Did you know that when Dolly and Tim passed there was all this conversation that we have to hide you in a bunker and protect you at all costs because we can’t stand the idea of losing another icon?” Dehghan asked him. “I hope you are taking care of yourself. You look amazing.”
“You mean the thing online?” Waters asked. “It came up and said, ‘Dolly Parton, Tim Curry…’ and then it had me and said ‘Please don’t have it come in three’ because we’re all 80 years old. That shocked me when it popped up on my Instagram…It shocked me when that one came up.”
“You look very healthy and radiant,” Dehghan told Baltimore’s Waters. “I was wondering if you have any health care regimen.”
“La Mer cream,” he said.
