KEY POINTS
- Oprah Winfrey said Tina Turner told her she was ready to go when she visited the singer at a hospital in 2019
- Winfrey admitted she expected that the visit would be their last meeting
- Turner’s husband Erwin Bach “willed her to live” as she dealt with numerous health issues, according to Winfrey
Tina Turner was “ready to leave the planet” four years ago, according to Oprah Winfrey.
The legendary singer’s rep announced this week that Turner died Wednesday after a “long illness.” She was 83.
Gayle King revealed on Thursday’s episode of “CBS Mornings” that while she knew the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll had been ill, Turner’s death still came as a “shock.”
“We keep hearing that song, ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It,’ when it comes to Tina Turner. I don’t know anybody who didn’t love her. We’ve all known Tina wasn’t doing well, but still, when you get the news, it was a shock,” King said.
Winfrey also said that learning about Turner’s passing was “a blow.”
“I was certainly aware that she was ill, but I had seen her in 2019 and gone to visit her in the hospital,” the TV mogul shared Thursday. “She had said to me then that she was actually ready to go, meaning, ready to leave the planet. I expected then that was going to be the last time that I saw her.”
Turner battled numerous illnesses, including intestinal cancer, strokes and kidney failure. Her husband, German actor and music producer Erwin Bach, who donated one of his kidneys to Turner to save her life in 2016, played a vital role in her health journey, according to Winfrey.
“I just have to say that her husband, Erwin Bach, is the most extraordinary person I’ve ever known,” Winfrey said. “I mean, he literally willed her to live and she’s been through, you know, one health crisis after another.”
“She just kept coming back,” King added.
“What a legacy she left us all”: @GayleKing and @Oprah shared special moments with Tina Turner, from concerts to dance lessons to meals together.
Oprah says she was a longtime fan of Turner’s — and the singer exceeded and transcended her expectations in friendship. pic.twitter.com/1INqw1BJ1j
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) May 25, 2023
Winfrey was a huge fan of Turner before they became friends. In 1996 and 1997, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” followed Turner’s “Wildest Dreams” tour around the country, according to Entertainment Tonight. The multimedia mogul even had a wig designed after the music legend. Winfrey once told fans that she “wouldn’t take the wig off,” even when she went to sleep.
“I said to my producers then, ‘We’re going to follow her wherever she’s going.’ I became the world’s biggest groupie, dragging the entire show from city to city following Tina, making people’s wildest dreams come true,” Winfrey recounted.
Turner’s publicist Bernard Doherty said in a statement to People Wednesday that the singer “died peacefully” after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland.
“With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” her rep said. “There will be a private funeral ceremony attended by close friends and family. Please respect the privacy of her family at this difficult time.”
The music icon died of natural causes, her rep told the Daily Mail Thursday.
