Tina Turner Dead: Cause of Death Was ‘Long’ Illness

Tina Turner, the legendary music icon, is dead at age 83, according to a May 24, 2023, post on her Facebook page.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner,” the statement said on Facebook. “With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow. Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. Tina, we will miss you dearly.” Turner is survived by her second husband, Erwin Bach.

Daily Mail reported that Turner died of natural causes.

The cause of her death was not clear, and the Facebook statement did not specify how Turner died. Daily Mail reported that Turner died “following a long, unspecified illness.” According to Telegraph, however, Turner was “diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2016” and had a kidney transplant in 2017.

Here’s what you need to know:

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Tina Turner Died at Her Switzerland Home After Years of Health Problems

According to Independent, Turner “died at her home in Kusnacht near Zurich, Switzerland.”

“Tina Turner, the ‘Queen of Rock’n’Roll,’ has died peacefully today at the age of 83 after a long illness in her home in Kusnacht, near Zurich, Switzerland,” a statement from her representative to The Independent said.

USA Today reported that Turner had “lived a reclusive life while battling ill health, including a stroke in 2013, intestinal cancer in 2016 and a kidney transplant in 2017.”

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Tina Turner Wrote About Her Kidney Transplant in Her Autobiography

In 2019, Kidney Research UK wrote a lengthy article about Turner’s kidney transplant, which was preceded by “dialysis treatment.” She wrote about the transplant in her autobiography, “My Love Story.”

According to Kidney Research UK, Turner’s health problems began with a stroke, but “a kidney from her second husband Erwin Bach not only saved Tina’s life but restored her belief in humanity following an abusive 14-year marriage to Ike Turner.”

She discovered her kidney problems while she was hospitalized for the stroke, the site explained.

“I tried to understand my kidney’s purpose, and why it was important. Something, to be honest, I’d never thought about before,” she wrote in the book, according to Kidney Research UK.

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Tina Turner Was Born in Nutbush, Tennessee, But Was Influenced by the St. Louis Music Culture

Turner “was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in Nutbush, Tennessee,” according to Biography.com.

Her parents, Floyd and Zelma Bullock, “were poor sharecroppers, who split up and left Turner and her sister to be raised by their grandmother,” the site reports.

She moved to St. Louis in the early 1950s and was raised by her mother, and she was influenced by the R&B scene in that city. She met Ike Turner there and soon started performing with him and a group called Kings of Rhythm, according to Biography.com.

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Tina Turner Was Married Twice

Tina Turner famously accused her first husband, Ike, of abuse, and they divorced in 1978, according to Biography.com.

In 2013, she married Erwin Bach, described by Biography.com as a “German record executive.”

According to People Magazine, Turner and Bach “dated for 27 years and were married for 10 years” at the time of her death.

“We grant each other freedom and space to be individuals at the same time we are a couple,” the singer wrote in her book, “Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good,” according to People.

“Erwin, who is a force of nature in his own right, has never been the least bit intimidated by my career, my talents, or my fame. He shows me that true love doesn’t require the dimming of my light so that he can shine. On the contrary, we are the light of each other’s lives, and we want to shine as bright as we can, together.”

READ NEXT: Erwin Bach, Tina Turner’s Second Husband.

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