American-born Swiss singer Tina Turner breathed her last on Wednesday. She was aged 83.
Stories about her life have continued to dominate the news, especially the mind-boggling domestic violence she went through in the hands of her equally late husband, Ike Turner.
Ike beat his wife and musical partner Tina mercilessly, reports claim; with a commentator describing him as “mean and dangerous, the epitome of the bad bad man.”
In one of the unending tales of the bizarre that Tina told about her marriage, she stated that Ike made her to watch a live sex show in a brothel on their wedding night, and that she had variously been beaten with a shoe stretcher while she was pregnant; had scalding coffee thrown at her, and of being brutalized with a coat hanger.
Reportedly addicted to sex, Ike allegedly had endless “groupies,” with a propensity for violence. His critics say he “kept a gun on him almost always;” while Tina’s Wiki entry claims that he was involved in “excessive drug use.”
I was insanely afraid of that man. I was living a life of death. I didn’t exist
Despite the alleged excesses, Tina stayed married to him for 16 years. However, on July 27th 1976, “Tina finally split from Ike, severing one of rock and rolls most talented couples forever, and took her first triumphant steps towards cementing her own legacy as one of pop musics greatest icons.”
Tina met her husband and collaborator when she was just 17-years-old and she went by the name of Anna Mae Bullock. Before then, her voice had only been heard inside of a church.
However, after a surprise performance in a night club, and subsequent discovery by Ike Turner, who was eight years her senior, Anna Mae ended up changing her name to Tina Turner at the age of 20, reportedly at Ike’s request. She became not only the lead singer of his rock-and-roll band, but also his wife.
I felt obligated to stay there … I felt sorry for him … Maybe I was brainwashed
Tina was only 18 when she had her first child Craig in 1958 with her partner, Raymond Hill, a saxophonist with Ike Turner’s band Kings of Rhythm. Craig was later adopted by Ike after he and Turner married in 1962.
In her biography I, Tina, she disclosed that Ike was abusive and promiscuous throughout their marriage, which led to her suicide attempt in 1968 by overdosing on Valium pills.
She said, “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.”
While the two rose to fame, becoming one of the best rock-and-roll duos, their relationship was anything but successful. As reported by iHeart, after years of abuse, which included relentless beatings, rapes, verbal assaults, and infidelity, all of which on Ike’s part, and a suicide attempt by Tina, one day she found herself aboard a flight sitting beside her husband and his pregnant mistress, something shifted inside of her.
As reported by iHeart, “It was following that flight that she ended up in a limo alone with her husband as they headed to a hotel that she got the strength to leave.
“In the limo on the way to the hotel, Ike was feeling playful. He tried feeding Tina some chocolate, and normally she’d have gone along with it and taken what he offered, even when she didn’t want it. But she didn’t.
addicted to sex, Ike allegedly had endless ‘groupies,’ with a propensity for violence
“Ike kept insisting, and he eventually shoved a melting chocolate into Tina’s face. And it dripped onto her white suit. Normally she’d have brushed this off but not today. ‘I said no.’ Tina shouted. Predictably Ike flew into a rage.
“But on that day, in that limo somewhere in the middle of that big state of Texas, Tina Turner did not endure the beating. She fought back. She fought rough and hard with her teeth and her nails, and her stilettos.”
Stating how the pair finally got divorced, iHeart states, “On July 1, 1976, the Turners flew from Los Angeles to Dallas. They got into a physical altercation en route to the hotel.
“Shortly after arriving at the hotel, Turner fled from Ike with only 36 cents and a Mobil card and hid at the Ramada Inn across the freeway. She filed for divorce on July 27, and it was finalized on March 29, 1978.
In 1981, Tina confessed, “I was insanely afraid of that man. I was living a life of death. I didn’t exist.”
She told another interviewer: “I felt obligated to stay there and I was afraid. I didn’t want to hurt him, and after he beat me up… I was sitting there all bruised and torn, and all of a sudden I’m feeling sorry for him. Maybe I was brainwashed.”
Ike Turner, who died in 2001, always denied his ex-wife’s claims that he abused her, and expressed frustration that he had been demonized in the media.
