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Tina Turner says she doesn’t know if she can forgive Ike ‘for all he ever did to me’

Singer said she feels ‘ashamed’ about years of abuse throughout marriage

Ellie Harrison
Tuesday 10 September 2019 08:02 BST
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Tina Turner confesses she gets 'emotional' about marriage to Ike

Tina Turner has said she doesn’t think she can forgive her abusive former husband Ike “for all he ever did to me”.

The singer was subject to violent abuse by Ike, who was also her singing partner, throughout their marriage.

“I don’t know if I could ever forgive all that Ike ever did to me,” she told The New York Times. “[But] Ike’s dead. So we don’t have to worry about him.”

An accidental cocaine overdose killed Ike in 2007 at the age of 76.

Turner added: “I don’t necessarily want to be a ‘strong’ person. I had a terrible life. I just kept going. You just keep going, and you hope that something will come… This [life now] came.”

She also admitted she has never spoken about the full extent of Ike’s abuse because she is “ashamed”.

“I think I’m ashamed,” she said. ”I feel I told enough.”

Turner attempted suicide in 1968 following years of her husband’s abuse and infidelities. She escaped the marriage in 1976, with a court allowing her to maintain the “Tina Turner” stage name that Ike had given her years prior and trademarked for himself.

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