We all remember how we used to sing along with the great Tina Turner when she sang ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’.
Her powerful vocals are etched in everyone’s memory. The beloved singer behind countless hits led a tumultuous life. Unfortunately, she passed away on Wednesday, May 24th.
Tina Turner was a beloved superstar known for her powerful vocals. In recent years, the megastar took it easy due to health and personal reasons. But the support of her husband, Erwin Bach, has always been unwavering.
But it wasn’t always this way. Tina Turner owes her last name to her first husband, Ike Turner. Tina met Ike in a nightclub in Manhattan, and from their first meeting, the duo was practically inseparable.
At first, they began making music together, but soon their relationship became personal. A few years after their first meeting, Tina and Ike traveled to Tijuana, Mexico to exchange their wedding vows in 1962.
While their marriage seemed picture-perfect to the outside world, it was crumbling from within. Tina revealed years later in her book ‘My Love Story’ that the marriage was abusive, both physically and verbally.
She talked about Ike’s temper and how, if he felt that Tina had insulted him in any way, he would become physically violent.
The abuse continued for years until 1976 when Tina decided she had had enough and left Ike. Two years later, she officially divorced him.
After that, the megastar was determined to remain single. Until she had a chance encounter with Erwin Bach.
Tina met Erwin when he was assigned by his company to pick her up from the airport. Tina was going to perform in Germany when she met her future husband, who at the time was a 30-year-old music director for EMI.
Tina later recalled that it was an instant attraction. She said, “He had the most beautiful face. You couldn’t miss it. My heart was pounding. It means soulmates have met. My hands were shaking. And Roger said to me, ‘Tina, you’re driving with Erwin,’ and I wanted to shout, ‘Yippee!'”
She admitted to having doubts in her head that told her romance never ends well. But she ignored all that and made sure to get to know Erwin a little better.
Tina offered Erwin to visit her in the US, which he agreed to. When the couple met in Tina’s part of the world, she was convinced that Erwin was the one. His unassuming and laid-back nature greatly appealed to the singer.
The couple remained very much in love until the last moment. Erwin told the media, “It’s love. It’s something we both have for each other. I always call it an electric charge. I still have it. Even after leaving her two hours ago, I still have that feeling. It’s in my heart. I feel very warm about it here.”
On Tina’s fiftieth birthday, Erwin decided to propose to her. He was confident of a positive response but was surprised when the singer declined, citing her past bad experience with marriage.
Tina later said of the proposal, “I said, ‘I have no answer.’ It wasn’t a yes, it wasn’t a no. Marriage is ownership. I didn’t want any more ‘my’ anything. I’d had enough of that.”
However, the love between Erwin and Tina never wavered, and the two continued on. Erwin’s unwavering dedication eventually convinced the singer to give marriage a second chance, as almost three decades after the initial proposal, she said yes to his proposal.
The couple married at their luxurious estate in Switzerland. The guests at the wedding were mainly famous, including Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King.
Tina wore a beautiful dress by Giorgio Armani, adorned with Swarovski crystals. Tina was incredibly happy with the ceremony and said it had gone exactly as she had imagined.
The couple resided in their beautiful home in the suburb of Zurich, Kuesnacht. The estate overlooks Lake Zurich and reportedly gives the feeling of being in a palace.
Since Tina stopped performing in 2009, she lived full-time in the privacy of her Swiss home. The singer even renounced her American citizenship when she became a Swiss citizen.
Turner said that living in Switzerland is wonderful and that she is very well-known in Europe. She said in an interview, “I’m as famous as Madonna in Europe. In some places even as famous as the Rolling Stones.”
Just when Tina’s life was finally becoming peaceful, she received devastating news about her health. In 2016, Tina was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Her options were limited; regular dialysis or a kidney transplant. The latter would give her a chance at a near-normal life, but kidney donations were hard to come by.
Fortunately for her, Erwin intervened. Her husband made the ultimate sacrifice for his beloved.
“He said he didn’t want another woman, or another life. Then he shocked me. He said he wanted to give me one of his kidneys,” she said.
Tina’s health finally improved thanks to Erwin’s sacrifice. And just as things started looking up again, her life took another sad turn.
Tina Turner lost her oldest son, Craig Turner. He was Tina’s son from a relationship she had before meeting Ike, but Ike Turner legally adopted him.
Craig Turner was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Tina was broken by the tragic loss of her child. But through it all, Bach remained by Tina’s side as her support and rock.
Turner recently shared that the two still kept the spark alive in their relationship. She posted a photo of the couple embracing, with the caption “Erwin and I have been together for over 30 years and he still writes me love letters, isn’t that romantic?”
The love of Tina Turner and Erwin Bach shows that true love can truly overcome anything. The duo could always be found by each other’s side, through thick and thin.
Share their very real yet beautiful love story with others to give them hope that true love finds you wherever you are in life!
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