Tina Turner turns 83: A look at singer's decades-long relationship with life-saving husband Erwin Bach
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND: Tina Turner, music legend and formerly part of the ‘Ike and Tina Turner Revue’ has just turned 83! The iconic singer was born in 1939 in Nashville, Tennessee, and has been performing since the 50s. Her career has only risen up and above since then and has seen her transform into an American music legend. But not many would know that the reason she’s with us today, hale and healthy and ready to celebrate is her husband of nine years, Erwin Bach.
Turner and Bach met when he had come to pick her up from the airport in Germany, where she had come for a concert. Turner has often described her love story with Bach as love at first sight. A report according to Amomama states that Turner had described their first meeting as “My heart went bu-bum. It means that a soul has met. My hands were shaking.”
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Their love lasted so long and strong that when Turner had been diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2016, she was left with only two options. She had to choose between going through regular dialysis or getting a kidney transplant. The chances of her living through the cancer were considered only through a kidney transplant, but at the time she was running short of options. Turner had been so distressed about the situation that she had started considering assisted suicide.
However, her husband Bach shocked her by offering to give her his kidney! He was very quick to come to her rescue and Turner had described the situation as very emotional. She said, “He said he didn't want another woman or another life. Then he shocked me. He said he wanted to give me one of his kidneys." She then successfully came out of the surgery and said, "Happy, overwhelmed, and relieved that we'd come through this alive."
This life-changing experience has made sure that the music legend has lived on to be with us today, with her loving husband by her side. The much-loved Queen of Rock n’ Roll is now knee-deep in her happy retirement life as she lives in Switzerland with her husband, where he works. They have been living there for decades and Turner had moved there to be with him back when they were dating. Turner and Bach dated for 27 years before they married in 2013; she was previously married to Ike Turner, her musical partner, and father to one of her sons. She also raised two of Ike’s sons as her own.