Tina Turner is marking her 81st birthday with the release of her new book, Happiness Becomes You. In the book, Tina talks about how her relationship with her husband Erwin Bach has changed her life for the better. Tina and Erwin, who is 16 years Tina’s junior, met in 1986, when Erwin was sent by Tina’s music label to pick her up from the airport in Germany. Their meeting happened almost a decade after Tina ended her abusive marriage with her first husband Ike Turner. In her marriage to Ike, Tina had to manage Ike’s jealousy over her success and insecurities while sustaining physical and mental abuse. However, her relationship with Erwin couldn’t be further from her first. Tina says that Erwin has taught her that true love doesn’t require her to dim her light so that he can shine. Below are a few excerpts via People:
In her new book, Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good, out Tuesday, the music legend credits her husband of seven years Erwin Bach, whom she lives with in Zürich, for teaching her how “to love without giving up who I am.”
“We grant each other freedom and space to be individuals at the same time we are a couple,” Turner writes in the book. “Erwin, who is a force of nature in his own right, has never been the least bit intimidated by my career, my talents, or my fame. He shows me that true love doesn’t require the dimming of my light so that he can shine. On the contrary, we are the light of each other’s lives, and we want to shine as bright as we can, together.”
“Falling in love with my husband, Erwin, was another exercise in leaving my comfort zone, of being open to the unexpected gifts that life has to offer,” she writes. “The day I first met Erwin, at an airport in Germany, I should have been too tired from my flight, too preoccupied with thoughts of my concert tour, and in too much of a hurry to get to my hotel to pay much attention to the young music executive who came from my record company to welcome me.”
“But I did notice him, and I instantly felt an emotional connection,” she continues. “Even then, I could have ignored what I felt — I could have listened to the ghost voices in my head telling me that I didn’t look good that day, or that I shouldn’t be thinking about romance because it never ends well. Instead, I listened to my heart. I left my comfort zone and made it a priority to get to know Erwin. That simple first meeting led to a long, beautiful relationship — and my one true marriage.”
Tina Turner’s life has always been inspiring to me. Every since I was a kid I used to sing “What’s Love Got To do with It?” and “Private Dancer” around my grandmother’s house. As someone who has witnessed domestic violence through family and friends, Tina’s journey from a relationship with Ike who was selfish and extremely abusive to one with a man who loved her so much that he gave her one of his kidneys is awe-inspiring to me. Tina truly sets the example that we never know where life will lead us, but if we are open, life will give us so many blessings. I look forward to reading her book because I know there will be a lot of amazing nuggets in it.
I know I am not the only one who was standing up and applauding Angela Bassett as Tina towards the end of What’s Love Got To Do With It when she took down Ike. Besides her music and movie roles, the fictionalized version of Tina’s life really endeared her to me. I now get my Tina fix by listening to her meditation chants on Youtube.
photos credit: Avalon.red and via Instagram
I am so happy that she has had lasting love! Thanks for the YouTube link to her chants, gonna have to check that out.
She deserves this.
So happy for her. It brought tears to my eyes, actually. I want to read this. My first memory of Tina as a young kid is watching her and Ike on my parents’ black and white TV (they were Luddites). I remember thinking oh man that lady’s crazy and I love it!! And let’s not forget Tina and Eric Clapton on stage at Live Aid back in the ’80s! In my opinion, she was the hit of the whole show and Clapton and everyone else was lovin’ it.
What she said is true and especially important for women to hear. That pressure to put up with things that shouldn’t be put up with, and be submissive to men at the expense of one’s beliefs and wellbeing often comes in the form of shaming from others- and not even just men. We do that to other women and mistake shaming/grooming for wisdom and guidance.
Her advice can be good for women outside of physically or emotionally abusive relationships with men too. It’s nice that she’s found peace and happiness after all she’s been through.
Love Tina!
May she live a long and happy life for years to come.
Her meditation chants are awesome. Tina is just so unique, she can’t be categorized at all. Like Dolly Parton, I want her to live forever.
What’s not to love about Tina?
Even her cheesy duet with Eros Ramazzotti is a classic around here, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I sing along to everything that features her while dancing through the house.
A little bit of Tina, and the sun comes up, especially on a drab, cold and gray day like today.
Absolutely love Tina. She is everything!!! I just wish that she wasn’t forever being defined by the public and media by her worst experience and that predator’s name constantly brought up in relationship to her. That was in the 70s and 80s! It’s 2020 now! She’s written a book about her one true love. Can we focus on that and not mention the predator’s name over and over? Yes, her escape is deeply inspiring and I say this as someone who has had multiple experiences at the hands of abusers. But even then, her life was about her faith, her music and talent, and then moving to a new level in her career that was not defined by that past horror. That was the early 80s. 40 years ago. Let’s celebrate her love that has lasted decades–not just the years she’s been officially married to him–and celebrate who she is now. There has been plenty of time and infinite reminders of that time, enough to last for those who wish it or need it. I just wish that in her octogenarian years she can finally be seen as her own person undefined by the horror she tried to escape over 40 years ago but no one in media seems to stop mentioning. Love you, Tina!
Why can’t Tina Turner & Dolly Parton run the world please? Tina Turner is so inspirational.
Oh mah gawd yes, give me all the Tina Turner stories! She is such an amazing woman. MOAR Tina!!!
It is so easy to get lost inside a relationship, inside the drama of someone else. Tina is one of my role models for staying true to oneself and not sacrificing my identity for a partner.
so beautiful.