{"id":70680,"date":"2023-05-25T15:31:17","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T15:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/25\/how-tina-turner-broke-the-silence-on-domestic-abuse\/"},"modified":"2023-05-25T15:31:17","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T15:31:17","slug":"how-tina-turner-broke-the-silence-on-domestic-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/25\/how-tina-turner-broke-the-silence-on-domestic-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"How Tina Turner ‘broke the silence’ on domestic abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When Tina Turner first spoke out about the violence she endured during her marriage to Ike Turner, it was an act of bravery to expose herself so publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was insanely afraid of that man,\u201d she told People magazine in 1981, revealing the painful reality behind the hugely successful musical duo.<\/p>\n

Tina\u2019s scorching description of their marriage included being made to watch a live sex show in a brothel on their wedding night, and being beaten with a shoe stretcher while she was pregnant.<\/p>\n

She also spoke about Ike throwing scalding coffee at her, and of being brutalised with a coat hanger. In 1968, she tried to take her own life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was afraid to put it out [talk about the abuse] because of what I would get from Ike,\u201d she told journalist Carl Arrington.<\/p>\n

Ike Turner, who died in 2007, always denied his ex-wife\u2019s claims that he abused her, and expressed frustration that he had been demonised in the media.<\/p>\n

\"Ike
The couple performed in Hammersmith, London, in 1975 (Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The couple met when Tina was just 17, after she saw his group Kings of Rhythm perform, and asked him to hear her sing.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, he spotted her star quality, making her his lead singer, choosing her stage name and lavishing her with clothes and jewellery.<\/p>\n

They married in 1962, and Tina, who had already experienced the pain of being rejected as a child by her mother, promised Ike she \u201cwouldn\u2019t leave him\u201d \u2013 something she later came to regret.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt obligated to stay there and I was afraid,\u201d she told Arrington. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to hurt him, and after he beat me up\u2026 I was sitting there all bruised and torn, and all of a sudden I\u2019m feeling sorry for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I was brainwashed.\u201d<\/p>\n

But by 1978, after a string of hits including River Deep, Mountain High, Tina decided she felt able to leave Ike. She could no longer put up with the \u201ctorture\u201d of being married to him, and the impact it had on their four sons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was living a life of death. I didn\u2019t exist,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I survived it. And when I walked out, I walked. And I didn\u2019t look back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tina
Tina Turner in 1981, the year she revealed the truth about her relationship with ex-husband Ike (Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tina moved away, and had to rebuild her career, making money by singing in Las Vegas and appearing on various TV shows.<\/p>\n

She decided to tell all in the 1981 interview, to expel some of the ghosts from her past.<\/p>\n

In Daniel Lindsay and TJ Martin\u2019s\u00a02021 documentary Tina, the singer said she was so nervous about doing the interview that she asked her psychic if it would ruin her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018No, Tina\u2019,\u201d the singer recalled. \u201c\u2018It\u2019s going to do just the opposite. It\u2019s going to break everything wide open.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tina
Image caption,By 1985, when this picture was taken, Tina Turner was once again enjoying chart success<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr Lenore E Walker, director of the US-based Domestic Violence Institute, which provides support for victims of domestic abuse, thinks Tina\u2019s decision to speak out was hugely important.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1981 we were just learning about the extent of domestic violence in homes,\u201d she tells the BBC. \u201cIt was often thought to be only poor women without resources who were abused.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Tina Turner spoke out about her life, it brought awareness to the fact that domestic violence was everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says Tina helped give credence to other women daring to speak out about abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen were not believed when they spoke out about domestic violence, so when Tina Turner, a well-respected and famous singer, spoke out, it gave other women the courage to do so, also,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed \u2018influencers\u2019 such as Tina Turner to speak out about domestic violence, so that\u00a0my work on battered woman syndrome\u00a0was introduced in the courts, and juries began to believe women acted to protect themselves and their children.\u201d<\/p>\n