Tina Turner feared her son would ‘turn out like’ his father
Topics: Tina Turner, Celebrity, Music, Film and TV
Katherine Sidnell
Featured Image Credit: Trinity Mirror/ Associated Press / Alamy
Topics: Tina Turner, Celebrity, Music, Film and TV
Tina Turner feared her son would ‘turn out like’ his father, according to her daughter-in-law.
The 'Proud Mary' musician tragically passed away on Wednesday, at the age of 83, in Switzerland.
Before her passing though, the singer made the admission about her son Ronnie.
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Turner had been subjected to years of abuse by her husband Ike.
Though she was finally able to leave him in 1978, the legendary singer claimed in her memoir I, Tina that her former spouse had used her nose as ‘a punching bag’ and had even given her third-degree burns.
This was depicted in her biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It which starred Angela Bassett.
Having experienced years of domestic abuse, Turner was concerned that her son would inherit his father’s violent nature.
This was made even worse when her son, Ronnie, showed similar traits to his dad – according to her daughter-in-law Afida.
She and Ronnie were married in 2007, but Turner had expressed concern about the match.
“[Tina] sometimes told me, ‘You don’t want to stay with him. He is going to be like his father,'” revealed the French singer, “It is pretty rare for a mother to say that.”
During her interview with the Daily Mail, she also alleged that the Grammy-award winner’s son had Afida question the marriage.
“At first, he was kind of like his father, but after that, he was going very well,” Afida alleged, as she reflected on their marriage.
Thankfully, things slowly improved between the pair.
“He made a very big effort to keep me. In the beginning, it was very hard because I was not willing to stay with him."
The couple stayed together until December 2022, which is when Ronnie passed away of colon cancer – aged just 62.
He was the second of Turner’s sons to pass before the rock ‘n’ roll icon, with her eldest son Craig dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2018.
“If you lose a child, or a loved one, you are going to cry every morning and every night,” said Afida as she recalled her late husband and mother-in-law.
Understandably, the family were still grieving this loss before Tuner’s passing on Wednesday (May 24) after a long illness.
The veteran musician even underwent a kidney transplant in 2017 and had been previously diagnosed with intestinal cancer, back in 2016.
Afida said it was the singer's Buddhist faith that helped her cope, saying that she feels Turner will be reunited with her sons now.
She said: “They never had time to spend together, and now all three of them are together.”