Tina Turner managed to turn her life around by rising to fame and finding true love after escaping her abusive relationship.
The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll succumbed to her battle with a long illness on Wednesday, her representative confirmed. It was also revealed that The Best hitmaker died at her home in Switzerland at the age of 83.
Tina’s tragic love life story has since her passing resurfaced on the internet, with fans branding the musician a warrior for escaping her abusive ex-husband and getting back on her feet.
Ike and Tina Turner remain one of the most successful married duos in the music industry of all time. What went on behind the scenes, however, was an abusive relationship that shocked the world after the singer revealed the cause of their 1978 split.
The couple was married from 1962 to 1978, a period during which they rose to fame with hits like River Deep, Nutbush City Limits, and Mountain High, and sold millions of copies.
Though incredibly successful, their union didn’t come with a happy marriage, and Tina previously revealed that she told her then-husband she didn’t want to be with him after he assaulted her with a wooden shoe stretcher in the 60s’.
Despite being subjected to physical and emotional abuse, Tina gave her marriage another try because she “really did care” about Ike. When nothing changed, however, the singer attempted to take her own life in 1968 by overdosing on Valium.
“It was my relationship with Ike that made me most unhappy. At first, I had really been in love with him. Look what he’d done for me. But he was totally unpredictable,” she said in her written account, I, Tina: My Life Story.
Recalling the toxic relationship, she added: “What had been ugly and hateful between us before became worse with every snort of cocaine. He threw hot coffee in my face, giving me third-degree burns. He used my nose as a punching bag so many times that I could taste blood running down my throat when I sang.”
In another account for her documentary TINA, she added: “It wasn’t a good life. The good did not balance the bad. I had an abusive life, there’s no other way to tell the story. It’s a reality. It’s a truth. That’s what you’ve got, so you have to accept it.”
Fortunately, Tina managed to break free by 1978 after the couple had a massive fight. After escaping Ike, the singer returned to the limelight and signed a contract with Capitol Records which led to her album Private Dancer.
By the late 1980s, The Best hitmaker has made her way to the top of the music industry, and in 1985, she met record executive Erwin Bach who she knew was the one for her after they first locked eyes at an airport in Germany.
Turner and Bach, who is 16 years younger than the singer, had since remained inseparable and went on to tie the knot in 2013.
In 2017, their love for each other hit the headlines after Bach donated his own kidney to save the life of his wife who was diagnosed with severe kidney disease.
“He was really so good-looking. My heart [was beating fast] and it means that a soul has met, and my hands were shaking,” Tina previously said as she recalled the time she first saw the love of her life.
“My hands were ice-cold. So this is what they call love at first sight, I thought. Oh my God, I am not ready for this.”
In Happiness Becomes You, she added: “Falling in love with my husband, Erwin, was another exercise in leaving my comfort zone, of being open to the unexpected gifts that life has to offer. The day I first met Erwin, at an airport in Germany, I should have been too tired from my flight, too preoccupied with thoughts of my concert tour.
“But I did notice him, and I instantly felt an emotional connection. Even then, I could have ignored what I felt — I could have listened to the ghost voices in my head telling me that I didn’t look good that day, or that I shouldn’t be thinking about romance because it never ends well.
“Instead, I listened to my heart. I left my comfort zone and made it a priority to get to know Erwin. That simple first meeting led to a long, beautiful relationship — and my one true marriage.”
Tina also opened up about her love for Bach in her 2018 memoir, My Love Story, in which she praised her husband for being “loyal, kind, and understanding” and for never judging her for the mistakes she made.
Knowing how old she was at the time she was diagnosed with kidney disease, Turner also credited her husband for saving her life by giving her his kidney.
“I’m happy to say that, thanks to my beloved husband, Erwin, giving me one of his kidneys, the gift of life, I’m in good health and loving life every day,” she said.
“I’m also thankful that I’ve not only survived, but thrived, so that I can pass on to you this book containing precious gifts that were given to me — the greatest gifts I can offer.”
Since their chance meeting in 1985, the couple remained madly in love until Tina’s illness tore them apart. In 2013, Tina relinquished her American citizenship and became a citizen of Switzerland where she lived with her husband in her final years.
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