Yahoo Lifestyle Tina Turner disclosed her abuse to Cher, asked for advice on how to leave Ike Turner
What's love but a second-hand emotion?
Do you believe in life after love?
Cher does, and she taught Tina Turner how to as well. In her newly released self-titled memoir, Cher reveals that Turner came to her for help when she was trying to work up the courage to leave her husband, Ike Turner.
It happened backstage while the Turners were guests on Cher's solo television show, titled simply Cher. Cher launched the show following her split from Sonny Bono, declaring herself a force to be reckoned with in her own right. Her own marriage to Bono was fraught with Cher accusing him of emotional abuse and forcing her to endure involuntary servitude in their divorce proceedings.
Related: Cher says she 'totally chickened out' while writing memoir: 'I have to go back and man up'
"Tina Turner came on the show twice with her then-husband, Ike," Cher recounts. "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.'"
"I looked at her and told her, 'I just walked out and kept going," Cher continues. "In retrospect, that reminds me of me going to Lucy."
The abusive relationship between Ike and Tina Turner is well-chronicled in both her 1986 memoir, I, Tina, and her 2018 memoir, My Love Story: A Memoir. It also served as fodder for 1993's What's Love Got to Do With It, which starred Angela Bassett as Turner and featured the moment where Turner fled from Ike with only 36 cents and a Mobil credit card in her pocket.
It is likely that this decision to leave, which came in the immediate aftermath of a bloody fight between Ike and Tina, was not long after Cher's conversation with Tina. Tina appeared on Cher, which ran on CBS from 1975 to 1976, in April 1975, and Tina left Ike on July 1, 1976.
Related: Cher recalls her final visit with Tina Turner: 'She was laughing hysterically'
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Cher and Turner remained close friends after that encounter, during which they duetted on a performance of Shirley & Company's "Shame Shame Shame" in matching ensembles. They performed together several more times over the years. Cher visited Turner in the last months of her life before Turner's death in 2023.
"There was no other person like her," Cher told MSNBC upon Turner's death. "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."
