Iconic singer Tina Turner has inspired generations with both her music and her resilience in a six-decades-long career. Turner celebrated her 80th birthday on Nov. 26, 2019, and took pause to reflect on both the trials she has traversed and the inner strength she has cultivated.
“How is this? Well, I look great, I feel good, I’ve gone through some very serious sicknesses that I’m overcoming. So it’s like having a second chance at life.”
Turner finished with a positive affirmation: “I’m happy to be an 80-year-old woman.”
Today, Turner resides at the grandly named Chateau Algonquin in Switzerland with her German husband (they married in 2013), Erwin Bach. She is thoroughly enjoying her tenth year of retirement.
Turner’s iconic musical legacy lives on despite her retirement, however; Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, based on the star’s life and studded with her numerous hits, came to Broadway. The $16.5 million production opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in October 2019 with singer Adrienne Warren playing the title role.
While Turner coached Warren personally, she admitted that revisiting certain aspects of her personal history was difficult. “I think I’m ashamed. I feel I told enough,” Turner said, referring to her own experience of domestic violence.
Turner endured a 16-years-long abusive relationship with her ex-husband Ike Turner before summoning the courage to walk away, penniless but emancipated.
She suffered a stroke just three weeks after marrying Bach in 2013. But the struggle didn’t end there; Turner also had intestinal cancer and kidney disease in the years running up to her 80th birthday.
Turner had a successful kidney transplant, however, when Bach donated one of his kidneys to his wife. The operation saved the singer’s life.
Through numerous personal tragedies, an extraordinary career, and finding her soul mate later in life, Turner has continued to inspire generations of fans around the world.