KUSNACHT, SWITZERLAND: When Tina Turner learned that her ex-husband, Ike, had put a hit out on her, she was compelled to take drastic steps. The late singer reportedly said that she started carrying a gun when her first husband allegedly had people shoot at her late manager Rhonda Graam's car and into the house they shared. Turner said that she had been exposed to years of physical, verbal and mental abuse by Ike before ultimately divorcing him in 1978.
Turner and Ike rose to fame in the '60s. In 1978, she filed for divorce after years of abuse, which she spoke about in her memoir, 'My Love Story.' After her split from Ike, Turner reportedly suffered from severe PTSD for decades.
'I made sure I carried a gun'
Turner refused to collaborate with Ike on any new projects after their split, which left him angry. "Ike, meanwhile, was so furious that I refused to collaborate with him on music projects that he struck back the only way he knew how - with violence," she wrote in her memoir, adding, "One night at home, we heard this loud ‘bang, bang, bang’ coming from outside. The back window of Rhonda’s car had just been blown out with bullets. Another night, the goons actually shot into the house. A friend later heard them bragging about it. We were so scared that Rhonda slept on the floor of the boys’ room while I slept in my closet," per New Zealand Herald.
"Then I heard from a reliable source that Ike had talked to someone about solving his Tina problem," Turner further wrote, adding, "He’d tried to arrange for a hit man to take me ‘to the ballpark’ – slang for a killing. After that, I made sure I carried a gun."
'I had an abusive life'
Turner and Ike's marriage was wrecked by violence, despite the fame they garnered over the years. Nobody knew about the abuse until 1981, five years after she had filed for divorce. She told People magazine then, "I was living a life of death. I didn’t fear him [Ike] killing me when I left, because I was already dead. When I walked out, I didn’t look back."
The pop queen stated in her 1986 autobiography, 'I, Tina', "He [Ike] threw hot coffee in my face, giving me third-degree burns. He used my nose as a punching bag so many times that I could taste blood running down my throat when I sang. He broke my jaw. And I couldn’t remember what it was like not to have a black eye." In the 2021 documentary, 'Tina', the Grammy-winning legend said, "I had an abusive life, there’s no other way to tell the story. It’s a reality. It’s a truth. That’s what you’ve got, so you have to accept it."
Tina Turner finally forgave Ike
Before his death in 2007, Ike confessed to having written Turner an apology letter but never sent it. Before his death, the two had not spoken for several years, and Turner did not attend his funeral. In the 2021 documentary, Turner said that she had discovered the strength inside herself to forgive Ike. She said at that time, "It hurts to have to remember those times, but at a certain stage forgiveness takes over — forgiving means not having to hold on. It was letting go because it only hurts you. By not forgiving, you suffer, because you think about it over and over. And for what?"
