Days after the '(Simply) The Best' singer's passing was made public, excerpt from her autobiography wherein she talked about insecurities that stopped her dating is brought to attention.
- May 29, 2023
AceShowbiz - Tina Turner used to go a year without sex after her nightmare marriage to Ike Turner. The late "What's Love Got to do With It" singer, whose death at the age of 83 was announced on May 24 after she spent years battling health problems, was beaten and subjected to sex she said felt more like rape when she was with her former music partner Ike.
In her autobiography "My Love Story", which was published five years before her death at her $76 million Swiss retreat, the music icon said, "Dating was often more trouble than it was worth. I was never one of those women who had to have sex no matter what. There have been times when I've gone up to a year without it, to be honest."
Tina, whose kidney problem was so severe her husband Erwin Bach gave him one of his in a life-saving transplant, added about the insecurities that stopped her dating. She noted, "I'd always been a little nervous about starting a relationship with a new man because I didn't know how my wig would be received."
"I always ran the risk of meeting a man who might object: a man who would have a problem becoming romantically involved with Tina, with her bountiful hair and glamorous trimmings, but waking up with unadorned Anna Mae," she added. "What if he was disappointed by the real me? I was always a bit nervous about taking that chance."
About Ike's abuse, Tina said, "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."
Tina added she lost count of the number of times Ike had been married and was unfaithful, but estimated he "probably" had up to 20 women on the side while they were together. She added, "All those wives were in addition to the countless girlfriends who came and went with dizzying speed."
"Ike slept with - or tried to sleep with - every woman in our orbit, married, single, and everything in between. He seduced every woman in our circle… in his mind sex was power," she went on to state. "When a woman became his conquest, he believed he owned her."
After eight years of abuse, Tina tried to kill herself by taking 50 sleeping tablets, and Ike forced her into stage the day after she pulled through in hospital. They divorced in 1978, when Tina, who was born Anna Mae Bullock, had only 36 cents, but after she insisted in court on being able to keep her performing name.
Tina found love again with 67-year-old music producer Erwin, whom she married in 2013 and who was by her side until her death.
