Did Tina Turner have children? Where are they now?
Tina Turner has passed away at the age of 83, after a long battle with a long unspecified illness.
The legendary singer died at her home in Kusnacht near Zurich, Switzerland.
Her representatives announced the news, saying, “With her, the world loses a music legend and role model.”
Did Tina Turner Have Kids? Was the singer married before her death? Read on below for everything you need to know about the legendary singer’s family.
Tina Turner died at home at the age of 83 after a long illness. She can be seen here in 2019 at the opening night of the Tina Turner Musical in New York City
A musical legend: Turner in 1997. In a recent interview, she said she wanted to be remembered as ‘the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’
Did Tina Turner Have Kids?
The ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ had two biological children. She had her first son named Raymond Craig with Kings of Rhythm saxophonist Raymond Hill.
She had a second son with Ike Turner named Ronnie who played bass guitar in a band called Manufactured Funk with songwriter and musician Patrick Moten.
She also adopted two of Ike Turner’s sons and would raise his children as her own. Here’s what you need to know about each of the singer’s four sons.
Craig Turner
Tina Turner gave birth to her first child, a boy, at the age of 18. Because the child’s father was Raymond Hill, the saxophonist in blues band Kings of Rhythm, his name was Raymond Craig Turner.
Craig, who attended Santa Monica College, worked in real estate at Rodeo Realty, in the San Fernando Valley.
Tragically, Craig Turner was found dead by suicide at his home in Studio City, California in 2018 at the age of 59.
Ronnie Turner
Turner gave birth to her second son, Ronald ‘Ronnie’ Renelle, in October 1960, sharing Ronnie with her ex-husband, Ike.
Ronnie would follow in his parents’ footsteps by entering showbiz and appearing alongside his mother in the 1993 film ‘What’s Love Got to Do with It’ which charted Tina’s rise to stardom.
Facing a history of drug-related arrests throughout his life, Ronnie was apprehended in August 1999 for possession of cocaine – with authorities claiming he was selling the drugs.
He was required to register as a drug offender in the aftermath, but was said to have failed to kick his addiction – going so far as to kick his wife and their two children out of his apartment when they tried to force him to to stop taking medicines.
Tina and Ike with their sons, two of whom Tina raised as her own, in 1972, six years before their divorce
Turner with her first husband, Ike. The pair rose to fame together on the Ike and Tina Turner Revue
Turner rose to fame as one half of a duo with Ike Turner. The couple married and had children, but separated in 1978 after what she described as years of abuse
Ronnie married French musician Afida Turner in 2007, who had previously dated Coolio and Mike Tyson.
Ronnie Turner passed away in December 2022 after a battle with cancer that ravaged his health in just three weeks.
Ike Turner Jr
Ike Turner Jr is one of Tina’s two adopted sons from her relationship with Ike Turner.
He would also find success in the music industry, winning a Grammy Award in 2006 after playing on “Risin’ with the Blues,” the last album his father recorded before his death from a cocaine overdose in 2007.
In a 2018 interview with the Mail on Sunday, Ike said Tina “turned her back” on him and abandoned her family in the United States after moving to Switzerland in 1994.
“Tina raised me when I was two. She’s the only mother I’ve ever known,” Ike said.
“But I haven’t spoken to my mother since God knows when—probably around 2000. I don’t think my brothers have spoken to her in a long time either.
Ike and Tina were always absent parents, he claimed.
“We were raised by housekeepers because my mom and dad were gone eleven months a year.
My father took me out of school when I was thirteen. I ended up running his recording studio and going out with them. They made a lot of money on tour and my dad always made me count until my hands were gray.’
Michael Turner
Of the four sons Tina Turner nursed during her lifetime, the least is known about Michael Turner, the youngest of the quartet.
Ike Jr said of his brother, “Michael is in a convalescent home in Southern California and needs medical attention. I’ve been to him a few times. He’s doing great.’
When asked if Tina ever visits Michael, Ike Jr replied, “No. All she does is send him money.’
In December last year, Turner’s son Ronnie died at the age of 62 from complications caused by colon cancer
Ronnie’s death came just four years after his older brother, Craig, committed suicide at his home in Studio City at the age of 59. Craig is pictured here with their mother
Turner is survived by her husband, 68-year-old Erwin Bach, and two adult sons
Was Tina Turner married?
Tina married Ike Turner in 1962. Their 16-year marriage was a difficult and turbulent one.
Ike, the drug-addicted son of a Mississippi preacher, regularly beat Tina until after 16 years she fled in the middle of the night in a bloodstained white suit with only 36 cents in her pocket.
After her difficult relationship with Ike Turner, Tina moved to Switzerland in 1994.
After initially meeting German music producer Erwin Bach – who is 16 years her junior – when he was supposed to greet her at Dusseldorf airport in 1986, the pair would begin a relationship.
The couple married in 2013, in a civil ceremony held on the shores of Lake Zurich in Kusnacht, Switzerland.