Cher is turning back time and revealing a piece of advice she gave the late Tina Turner.
Turner, the music icon who died last year at the age of 83, is remembered for her impactful musical career and is also referred to as the Queen of Rock ‘N’ Roll. But her rise to fame was marked by a painful past: She endured years of abuse during her marriage to the late Ike Turner.
In 1976, Tina Turner would file for divorce and reclaim her power — but, apparently, she had some help along the way.
In Cher’s newly released memoir, “Cher: The Memoir, Part One,” the showbiz icon said she aided Turner on her journey toward healing, Entertainment Weekly reported. The singer said it happened when both Turners were guests on her show, “Cher,” which she started hosting after she ended her own toxic marriage to Sonny Bono in 1975.
“Tina Turner came on the show twice with her then-husband, Ike,” says the singer. “One of the days we were shooting, she came to my room before we went on asking if I had some cover-up. She had a bruise on her arm she didn’t want showing on camera. I told her I had something that would work. She sat down while I looked for it and then quietly said, very straightforward, ‘Tell me how you left him.’”
Cher’s response? “I just walked out and kept going.”
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Turner described the abuse she suffered in both her 1986 and 2018 memoirs, “I, Tina” and “Tina Turner: My Love Story,” as well as in interviews.
“And then the beating came,” Turner recounted in a 2013 interview on “Oprah’s Next Chapter,” as she described when Ike first became violent with her. ”And then against the head. Always the head, with a shoe stretcher. A wooden shoe stretcher,” she said.
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Shortly after Turner’s death, Cher went on MSNBC to pay tribute to her late friend.
“There was no other person like her,” Cher said. “There was no other person who could even come close to who she was. As a woman, she gave you lots of strength. And I’m sure she’s encouraged so many young people, but she gave me lots of strength sometimes, and I gave her lots of strength, too. I think we were perfect friends for each other, truthfully.”