Tina Turner Reveals She Received A Kidney From Husband Erwin Bach
Tina Turner will soon be releasing her second autobiography, My Love Story, and those who have already seen a copy of the revealing tome are sharing some details about the singer’s life which were previously unknown.
Earlier today, the Inquisitr reported that the voice behind the hit song “What’s Love Got to Do with It” shares details about a suicide attempt in the memoir. While in a 16-year marriage to an abusive husband, infamous musician Ike Turner, she said she tried to kill herself by downing 50 sleeping pills. Fortunately, she survived the overdose.
In the book, 78-year-old Turner also writes about battling high blood pressure, complications from a stroke, and intestinal cancer, according to People.
But when she suffered kidney failure, an incredible gesture from her second husband left her feeling incredibly proud of the man she married.
Turner first met music business executive Erwin Bach in 1985 and, despite the fact that he is 16 years her junior, the two soon fell in love. They waited about 28 years to get married, though, finally tying the knot in July of 2013.
When the “Proud Mary” singer found out that she was suffering total kidney failure, doctors told her that her only options were to go on dialysis or undergo a kidney transplant.
“I’m not living on a machine,” Turner wrote in the book about the thought of being on dialysis for the rest of her life, according to the Daily Mail.
“It wasn’t my idea of life. But the toxins in my body had started taking over. I couldn’t eat. I was surviving, but not living.”
She said that, at the time, she thought about death, which she believed was something that she was just going to have to accept.
Turner even wrote that she was again considering suicide, which is legal in Switzerland, where she now lives. She even signed up with one organization that facilitates the process, Exit and Dignitas.
#ThrowbackThursdays pic.twitter.com/QGhYr2zCel
— TinaTurner (@tinaturner) June 28, 2018
Bach, on the other hand, did not want to see the woman he loves so much die.
“Then he shocked me,” Turner wrote in My Love Story.
“He said that he wanted to give me one of his kidneys. I was overwhelmed by the enormity of his offer. But because I love him, my first response was to try to talk him out of taking such a serious and irreversible step.”
Luckily, medical tests determined that the husband and wife were compatible with one another, and Turner received Bach’s kidney on April 7, 2017.
“He’s been full speed ahead ever since. I, on the other hand, have experienced ups and downs,” she wrote.
“My body keeps trying to reject the new kidney, which is not uncommon after a transplant. This means I have to take strong doses of immunosuppressants to weaken my antibodies and prevent them from attacking an organ they don’t recognize. Sometimes, the treatment — which causes dizziness, forgetfulness, and anxiety — involves spending more time in [a] hospital.”
However, the Grammy Award winner said that she and Bach are now closer than they ever imagined.
“I can look back and understand why my karma was the way it was. Good came out of bad. Joy came out of pain. And I have never been so completely happy as I am today.”
Turner’s new book, My Love Story, will be released by Atria Books on October 16.
