File picture shows singer Tina Turner and her husband Erwin Bach. Picture: Reuters
TINA Turner was worried her son Ronnie would follow in his abusive dad Ike Turner’s footsteps.
Ronnie Turner’s wife Afida Turner said Tina, whose death on 24 May is said to have been from “natural causes” was so haunted by Ike’s brutalities she warned her Ron “is going to be like his father”.
She told the Daily Mail: “(Tina) sometimes told me, ‘You don’t want to stay with him. He is going to be like his father.’”
Ike died of a drug overdose in 2007 aged 76 after years of tormenting Tina physically, verbally and mentally.
His abuse was so severe it led to Tina trying to take her life in 1986 by swallowing 50 sleeping pills.
French-born singer Afida added at the beginning of her relationship with Ronnie he did show signs of troubling behaviour.
She said: “At first, he was kind of like his father, but after that, he was going very well.
“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.”
Ronnie, who had a history of drug-related arrests, was described by Afida as a “heavy drinker” when they first met, but said she had made him “stop drinking and go to the gym,” adding he was “doing very well” before his death.
Ronnie died of complications from colon cancer months before his mother’s passing aged 62.
Ike used to beat Tina with a shoe straightener as he didn’t want to hurt his guitar-playing hand, and she thought he was cheating on her with up to 20 women at once who he called his “sister wives”.
Tina also told how he subjected her to violent sex that felt more like rape.
Her struggle to free herself of the abusive relationship was told in her ‘What’s Love Got to do With It’, with Angela Bassett, 64, playing Tina and Laurence Fishburne, 61, the violent Ike.
Towards the end of the film, Tina is seen declaring in court she doesn’t want a penny from Ike – but demanding to keep her stage name.