The world is mourning the sudden passing of the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll, Tina Turner, who sadly died this week aged 83, after a long health battle.
Most of us know Turner as the voice behind mega hits like 'The Best' and 'What's Love Got To Do With It?', having forged a wildly successful solo career during the 1980s and 1990s after leaving her husband and music partner Ike Turner in 1978.
While the pair were known to have had a turbulent marriage, the intricate details of their toxic and abusive relationship weren't made public until Turner released her 1986 memoir I, Tina and subsequent 1993 biopic.
Starring Angela Bassett, the dramatic movie depicted how Turner and Ike burst onto the music scene during the 1960s and 1970s, but how Ike's physically and sexually abusive behavior eventually forced Turner to quit the band and go solo.
Behind the scenes of Ike and Turner's seemingly successful duo was a tumultuous relationship that often resulted in Ike being abusive towards Turner. She first spoke out about the abuse she was suffering at a time when it wasn't commonplace to do so.
Several years after divorcing Ike in 1978, Turner spoke to People magazine about the abuse. "I was living a life of death. I didn't fear him killing me when I left, because I was already dead. When I walked out, I didn't look back."
Then, when she released her memoir, it was the first time many of her fans were able to learn about the full extent of Ike's violence. "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. He broke my jaw. And I couldn't remember what it was like not to have a black eye," she wrote, per The New York Post.
In 1976, while on tour in Dallas, Turner got the courage to leave Ike following the years of abuse, telling People: "Ike was feeling a little irritable that day and hit me with the back of his hand. He beat me the entire way from the airport to the hotel … By the time we got to the hotel, the left side of my face was swollen like a monster's."
After Ike fell asleep that night, Tina fled with just: "36 cents in her pocket and a Mobil credit card" in her wallet. "I felt proud. I felt strong. I felt like Martin Luther King."
Ike himself did admit to the abuse in his 1999 memoir, Takin' Back My Name: The Confessions of Ike Turner, where he wrote (via The New York Post): "Sure, I've slapped Tina. We had fights and there have been times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I never beat her."
In her 2021 documentary, Turner revealed that she had found it in herself to forgive her ex-husband, who died in 2007. "It hurts to have to remember those times, but at a certain stage forgiveness takes over - forgiving means not having to hold on. It was letting go because it only hurts you. By not forgiving, you suffer, because you think about it over and over. And for what?"
Fortunately, for Turner, she went on to marry German music executive Erwin Bach in 2013, after being together for 27 years. The pair lived together in Switzerland in the years before her passing and Erwin even donated a kidney to Tina when her own failed in order for her to live longer.
Our thoughts are with Tina Turner's family, friends, and fans at this tragic time.
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