Tina Turner’s life has everything of a contemporary tragedy. The fates of her sons Raymond Craig Turner, Ronald Turner, but also of the sons of Ike Turner (Ike Turner JR and Michael Turner) whom she raised, will also have taken some dramatic turns…
We know the biography of Tina Turner, “queen of rock” and incarnation of the troubled destiny of a black woman born in the United States, who started from nothing at the dawn of the 1960s and survived the trials of life as much as the violence of a tyrannical husband. We know less about the fates of his four sons, who will have appeared to take an equally dramatic turn.
Tina Turner gave birth to Raymond Craig Turner at age 18, in 1958, a first child from her marriage to saxophonist Raymond Hill. Then comes Ronald (known as “Ronnie”) Turner, born this time in 1960, from his tumultuous union with Ike Turner. But Tina Turner also raised two boys, Ike Jr. and Michael Turner, the two sons of Ike Sr.’s first marriage to Lorraine Taylor in the 1950s.
A brutal death a few months ago
When the death of Tina Turner was announced this Wednesday, May 24, the name of the singer’s second son, Ronald Turner, immediately resonated in the minds of fans, he who died suddenly only a few months ago, in last December, from a serious illness. Ronnie Turner was discovered lifeless outside his home on December 8, following severe respiratory problems.
Ronnie Turner, bassist, singer, but also actor, who had played in a biographical film about his mother, was notably known in France as the ex-husband of Afida Turner, French influencer, known for her participation in various talk shows and reality TV shows. The death of this 62-year-old son, suffering from cancer for several years and suffering from cardiovascular problems, will plunge Tina Turner, already diminished, “in pain”. “Ronnie, you left the world far too soon. In sadness, I close my eyes and think of you, my beloved son,” she wrote in a heartbreaking tribute.
The Suicide of Craig Turner
Raymond Craig Turner, his older brother, will also have come to a tragic end in recent years, he who committed suicide in 2018, using a gun in his home in Studio City, California, in 59 years old. Craig Turner, who had been adopted by Ike Turner, the executioner of his own mother, had made a career in real estate.
If this gesture has never been explained, Tina Turner will once again have expressed her grief in her autobiography. “I know I’ll get through this again, one way or another. I’m a strong person. […] But what I would really like is to hear my son still call me ‘darling'”, she lamented on social networks.
Son accusing Tina Turner of abandonment
If we know relatively little about the other two children of Tina Turner – in reality the sons of Ike whom she raised -, we do know that she had a tumultuous relationship with her adopted son, Ike Jr. a few years ago, the latter had engaged in a vast unpacking in the tabloids about Tina Turner, accusing her of having abandoned her family.
“Tina raised me from 2 years old. She’s the only mother I’ve known. But I haven’t spoken to her since God knows when – maybe around 2000. I don’t think my brothers have spoken to her not for a long time either”, assured Ike Turner Jr. And the musician, then aged 59, added: “My mother is living her life – she has a new husband and lives in Europe. She does not want to know anything about the past “. Tina Turner had settled in Switzerland for the last years of her life.
In the same interview, Ike Jr. Turner also mentioned his brother Michael, much more discreet, in fragile health. “Michael is in a convalescent home in Southern California and needs medical assistance. I’ve been to see him quite a few times. He’s doing great,” he told the Daily Mail.