Tina Turner's Relationship With Her First Husband Ike Was Full Of Tragedy

The following article contains mentions of domestic violence, sexual assault, drug abuse, and suicide.

Powerhouse performer Tina Turner expanded the concept of what it meant to be a Black musician in the 1960s. Thanks to her striking growls, raw stage presence, and whirlwind of struts and jolts, the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll took the world by storm with hits that spanned decades, such as "Proud Mary" and "What's Love Got to Do with It." Though she certainly had the talent and star power to make it on her own, her first husband, fellow musician Ike Turner, played a key role in the start of her career. 

Ike and Tina tied the knot in 1962, and they established themselves as an unstoppable music duo thanks to their genre-bending ventures like the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. However, their relationship was anything but idyllic; Tina would later state that Ike was physically and emotionally abusive. Their marriage ended in a tumultuous divorce, a tell-all interview with People magazine in 1981, documentaries, and even a 1993 biopic that saw Angela Bassett put her body through insurmountable stress to portray the late singer. 

After Ike died in 2007, Tina did not comment on his passing right away. Years later, she would tell Gayle King on "CBS Sunday Morning" that she was relieved when he died. "I just felt happy he's off the planet," she said. Tina's relationship with Ike was a tragic and heartbreaking period that inevitably shaped her legacy.

Tina Turner had a difficult childhood. She was raised by her grandmother in Nutbush, Tennessee, but after her grandmother died, Tina moved to St. Louis at 16 to live with her mother and sister. It was there she met Ike Turner, who, at the time, was a local sensation with his band, the Kings of Rhythm. On a whim, Tina put her experience singing at a Baptist church as a child to good use when she showcased her voice to Ike by covering B.B King's "You Know I Love You." Impressed by her natural talent, Ike invited her to work with him and his band.

In 1960, Ike asked Tina to record a version of his song "A Fool in Love." Before the release of the song, Tina still went by her real name, Anna Mae Bullock; "A Fool in Love" was her first song under the name "Tina Turner." In a 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Tina stated that Ike not only came up with this name without her approval, but trademarked it. "Ike's problem was he was a musician who always wanted to be a star, and was a star locally, but never internationally, to travel," she explained. "So, he then changed the name to Ike and changed my name to Tina because if I ran away, Tina was his name. It was patented, as you call it. ... So he could own me." 

Tina also recalled wanting to distance herself from Ike, and she told a member of his team as much. After he found out, he retaliated with physical violence.

In 1958, Tina Turner and her bandmate Raymond Hill, with whom she was in a relationship at the time, had a son named Craig Raymond Turner. Tina's relationship with Hill ended shortly after, and she began dating Ike Turner in 1959. Ike and Tina welcomed their first child together, Ronnie Turner, in October 1960.

In her 1981 interview with People, Tina reflected on the trauma she endured behind closed doors while pregnant. In addition to suffering physical abuse at Ike's hands, Tina said Ike was adamant she get right back to work after giving birth: They performed at The Filmore just weeks after Ronnie was born.

Tina often felt trapped not only by financial restraints but because she promised never to leave Ike. "I felt obligated to stay in the marriage and I was afraid," she told People (via the Independent). "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." In the aforementioned doc, Tina said she felt like she had no choice but to fulfill her musical obligations. "I was afraid of him, and I cared what happened to him, and I knew that if I left, there was no one to sing," she said.

Ike Turner and Tina Turner's relationship began as an affair, as Ike was still in a relationship with his then-girlfriend, Lorraine Taylor. Tina would later say that she didn't really want to be in a relationship with Ike in the first place, but felt like it was the only option at the time. As she told The Times, "I felt awful. I didn't know how to say no, because I needed the work. I think I wasn't educated to handle that."

In 1962, Ike and Tina got married in Tijuana, Mexico. Tina wasn't fully behind marrying Ike, but she obliged nonetheless due to her fear of being physically assaulted by Ike, per her 2018 memoir, "My Love Story." "[Arguing] would just make him mad, and that might lead to a beating," she wrote. "I definitely didn't want a black eye on my wedding day."

After the wedding ceremony, Ike took Tina to a brothel to commemorate tying the knot. Tina was deeply disturbed by her new husband's plan for the evening. "People can't imagine the kind of man he was — a man who takes his brand-new wife to a live, pornographic sex show right after their marriage ceremony," she said. "What was on display was more gynecological than erotic. ... I was miserable the whole time, on the verge of tears, but there was no escape."

Violence was never not a part of Tina Turner's marriage to Ike Turner, though Ike would attempt to downplay the severity of the abuse in his memoir, "Takin' Back My Name: The Confessions of Ike Turner," as well as in interviews. "Yeah, I hit her, but I didn't hit her more than the average guy beats his wife," he told Spin in 1985. "It's been exaggerated. People buy bad news, dirty news. If she says I abused her, maybe I did."

According to Tina, she consistently sustained verbal onslaughts from Ike, only to then have it turn into physical abuse. Most of these instances culminated in her suffering an injury, such as a blackened eye or swollen lips, then ended with Ike forcefully initiating sex with Tina. According to Tina, she often did not consent. According to her 2018 memoir, "My Love Story," her sex life with Ike was barely an act of love and mostly an act of violence, as she noted that there was nothing compassionate about their more intimate moments. "Sex with Ike had become an expression of hostility — a kind of rape — especially when it began or ended with a beating," she recounted. 

Ike Turner and Tina Turner shared four kids. There was Ronnie Turner, who was born early on in Ike and Tina's relationship, as well as Craig Raymond Turner, Tina's son from her previous relationship with Raymond Hill whom Ike would later adopt. Tina also became the adoptive mother of Ike Turner Jr. and Michael Turner, who were Ike's sons from his previous relationship with Lorraine Taylor. 

In her 2021 HBO documentary "Tina," Craig said Tina loved being a mom, calling it her greatest source of joy. She also went to great lengths to hide Ike's abusive habits from her children. However, as Craig recalled, he and his siblings frequently heard Ike abuse Tina. "Most of the time when Ike would come home, he would take her back in the room and then close the door, and there'd be the screams," he recalled. "And we were so petrified, we were in bed with the covers over our heads."

One time, Craig even saw Ike throw hot coffee at Tina, resulting in her sustaining third-degree burns. Though Tina tried to reassure Craig that she was okay, the damage was already done, and his perception of Ike drastically changed. "He came to apologize, and he apologized for the third-degree burn but didn't apologize for throwing the coffee on her," Craig stated. "At that point in time, I hated that man for the rest of my life. And I will never forget that, never."

As previously noted, Ike Turner had a long history of infidelity. Once Tina Turner entered his life, his affinity for open relationships never ended. As stated in a 1985 interview with Spin, Ike claimed Tina not only knew about his lifestyle but even encouraged him to pursue relationships with other women. "Tina even got girls for me. I didn't do anything with her that I wasn't doing when we first met," he stated. "There were times I'd be on the stage, and I'd see a pretty girl out there, and I'd say to her, 'See that girl? Tell her to meet me over at the house. See that one? Go put her in the car.'"

Though he initially had apprehensions about Tina's growing resentment of his affairs, Ike told Los Angeles Times in 1993 that his dalliances with other women was the one aspect of his relationship that he "maybe" regretted. "If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't do anything any different. Except maybe for all the girlfriends," he said.

Looking back on the marriage, which was plagued with abuse, Tina told The Times that the affairs were the least of her concerns. "The other women, because I didn't love him that way... the other women weren't so bad, but it was the constant, constant ill treatment," she said.

As with any abusive relationship, forging an exit strategy is often easier said than done. In Tina Turner's case, this couldn't be any more evident. Given her lack of financial independence due to Ike Turner taking ownership of her career, Tina couldn't see a clear way out of her marriage. As she told Oprah Winfrey in a 2005 interview for O, The Oprah Magazine, "When I look back on that time now, it was just hell. So why didn't I walk out? I had nowhere to go. I didn't have money." She felt trapped in her own life. Six years into her marriage to Ike, Tina attempted suicide.

In 1968, she managed to get her hands on sleeping pills from a doctor, and before a show, she swallowed 50 pills, per her 2018 memoir "My Love Story." "When I took those pills, I chose death, and I chose it honestly," she wrote. "I was unhappy when I woke up." Ike's reaction to her suicide attempt made the situation all the more heartbreaking. Tina grew fearful once Ike got to see her in the hospital, and according to Tina, Ike appeared cold toward her suicidal attempt and even uttered that she "should die."

Tina Turner eventually found strength in Buddhism, which would become the catalyst for her self-empowerment toward the latter part of her marriage with Ike Turner. This journey helped Tina finally end this 16-year chapter of her life. On July 1, 1976, just a few weeks before she filed for divorce, Tina ran away from Ike while they were in Dallas, Texas.

The two got into an altercation at the airport before they even landed in Dallas, and it continued once they reached the Statler Hilton. Tina told People in 1981 that she was beaten so severely that the left side of her face was "swollen like a monster's." Ike eventually fell asleep in their hotel room, and Tina saw this as an opportunity to escape. During her 2017 appearance on "The Jonathan Ross Show," Tina recalled leaving through a side exit that led to a freeway where she almost collided with a truck. It was across the freeway, however, where she pleaded with the managers at another hotel to let her stay for the night, despite only having 36 cents and a gas card. "It was just time to not take any more," she said. "It was constantly abusive. ... It was just the sameness sameness, and the violence, and you just get fed up, and you say, 'Life is not worth living if I'm going to stay in this situation.'"

From the start of Ike Turner and Tina Turner's professional relationship, Ike was said to have treated Tina like an asset. Within the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, Ike funneled Tina's success into his own business ventures while leaving Tina with nothing. This was apparent during her marriage as she told Jonathan Ross on "The Jonathan Ross Show" that Ike wanted to make sure that if Tina ever were to end things with him, she'd wind up destitute. "He kept everything. He always said, 'When you leave, you will leave like you came," she recalled. 

After Tina filed for divorce on July 27, 1976, settlements had to be arranged. This proved to be a complicated matter, considering that Ike was in control of everything, including her music. The divorce was eventually finalized in 1978, but Tina had no money. She did get to keep two things, however: two cars and the right to the name "Tina Turner." In the 2021 documentary "Tina," she noted that this was the only thing she fought to keep, as she saw it as a way to rebuild her brand. "Ike fought a little bit because he knew what I would do with it, and it was through court that I got it, Tina," she explained. It was a time of hardship as she'd get dropped by her record label. Fortunately, with the help of names like David Bowie, Tina was able to reboot her career, amassing even more success in the 1980s.

In her 1981 interview with People,Tina Turner shared that she believed Ike Turner found new ways to try to control and intimidate her following their divorce. "Gunshots were fired into my home, one of my girlfriends' car was burned and there were threats," she said (via Fox News). "I'm not saying Ike did it. I don't think he would have hurt me, but he wanted to get close and scare me."

Later, in her 2018 memoir "My Love Story," Tina went into full detail about what she and her manager, Rhonda Graam, experienced after Ike tried to contact Tina for a musical collaboration. After denying his request, Tina said both Graam's car and their shared house were shot. presumably by members of Ike's entourage. "We were so scared that Rhonda slept on the floor of the boys' room while I slept in my closet," she said. Tina later learned that Ike allegedly had a hit out on her. "He'd tried to arrange for a hit man to take me 'to the ballpark' — slang for a killing," she wrote. "After that, I made sure I carried a gun."

In the 2021 documentary "Tina," the legendary singer shared that, despite everything Ike put her through, it was important to her that she was able to find forgiveness. "Forgiving means not to hold on," she said. "Not forgiving, you suffer, because you think about it over and over. And for what?" That said, Tina was never interested in having him in her life again. As she said in a separate interview with The Times, "Ike wasn't someone you could forgive and allow him back in."

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, is dealing with domestic abuse, or has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available.

• Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org
• Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
• Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).