Tina Turner endured unimaginable agony for years, but her biggest heartache was her children.
According to her daughter-in-law, the eight-time Grammy winner was worried her son Ronnie would follow in the abusive footsteps of his father, Ike.
Afida Turner, who was married to Ronnie from 2007 until he died in 2022, revealed in an interview with The Daily Mail that the Proud Mary singer “sometimes told me, You don’t want to stay with him. He is going to be like his father.”
Ike, who passed away from an overdose in 2007, was physically and emotionally abusive to Tina during their 14-year union.
In her memoir, “I Tina,” the music icon wrote that Ike was abusive and promiscuous throughout their relationship, which led her to a suicide attempt in 1968 by overdosing on Valium pills.
The What’s Love Got To Do With It singer was prepared to leave Ike by ’78 after a string of hits. She could no longer endure his “torture” and the harm it did to her sons.
She told BBC, “I was living a life of death. I didn’t exist, But I survived it. And when I walked out, I walked. I didn’t look back,”
French-born Afida, who is also an award-winning artist, admitted that Ronnie did exhibit signs of unsettling conduct earlier on in their relationship.
“At first, he was kind of like his father, but after that, he was going very well,” she said, noting that she told Ronnie she would leave if he continued.
“He made a very big effort to keep me,” Afida added. “In the beginning, it was very hard because I was not willing to stay with him.”
She also asserted that Ronnie, who had a history of drug-related arrests, was a “heavy drinker” when she first met him, but she “made him stop drinking and go to the gym,” and “he was doing very well.”
However, in 2022, Ronnie’s health took a turn for the worse, and he died in 2022, months before his mother’s passing, from complications of colon cancer. He was 62.
Still reeling from the death of Ronnie, Afida says she has found small comfort in the knowledge that he and Tina have now been reunited – along with Craig (Turner’s son from a previous relationship with musician Raymond Hill).
And as Tina did for so long, Afida is seeking comfort in her music – something that she says was a key part of her bond with her mother-in-law.
“Tina Turner will be with us forever, Afida said. “Rest in Peace with your two sons, Ron and Craig. I love you all very much.”
The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll died last week at 83 of “natural causes.”
