Tina Turner has forgiven her abusive ex for the beatings and the violence he subjected her to when they were married.
The soul great left her bandmate and partner Ike Turner after years of torment and later opened up about her crazy marriage in the book I, Tina, which was turned into eye-opening movie What's Love Got to Do With It?, starring Angela Bassett.
But, now Ike is dead and Tina is 78, she tells The Times she has forgiven her ex for everything he put her through.
"There was violence because he had this fear that I was going to leave him," Turner says, revealing she's not sure she ever truly loved the man who seduced her when she was the teenage singer in his band.
"I felt awful," she explains. "I didn’t know how to say no because I needed the work. I think I wasn’t educated to handle that."
Their 14-year marriage was plagued by his affairs and his temper, but 42 years after she plucked up the courage to leave him and launch a solo career, Tina reveals she has forgiven Ike.
"As an old person, I have forgiven him, but it would not work with him," she adds. "He asked for one more tour with me, and I said, 'No, absolutely not'. Ike wasn’t someone you could forgive and allow him back in.
"It's all gone, all forgotten (now). I don’t know what the dreams are about. The dreams are still there - not the violence, the anger. I wonder if I’m still holding something in."
Tina has since found love with longtime partner Erwin Bach, who she wed in 2013.
