Tina Turner’s death has the entire world grieving. The talented singer was the voice of her generation and paved the way for many artists after her. While the singer’s health struggles were known to the public, her cause of death still remained a mystery.
Now, her representatives have finally revealed her cause of death.
Tina Turner died on Wednesday peacefully in her sleep. At the time of her death, the 83-year-old singer was at her home in Küsnacht near Zurich in Switzerland. She passed away after a long illness. In her last years she had been very public about her health and her struggles with it.
Just two months before her death on March 9, Turner made a post on Instagram imploring her followers to be sure to take care of their kidneys and health. The singer wrote how she put herself in “great danger” by not seeking timely help to manage her blood pressure. She made the post in honor of International World Kidney Day.
“Today is International World Kidney Day. Why is it important? Because kidneys fail without pain. And that’s why I’m telling you today: Show your kidneys love! They deserve it. My kidneys are victims of my not realising that my high blood pressure should have been treated with conventional medicine,” Turner wrote in the caption.
“I have put myself in great danger by refusing to face the reality that I need daily, lifelong therapy with medication. For far too long, I believed that my body was an untouchable and indestructible bastion,” the singer continued.
She directed fans to a website where they could learn more about Tina Turner’s story of her dialysis and kidney donation by her husband Erwin Bach.
Turner’s health struggles have been well documented due to her status as a major celebrity. In 2013, the singer suffered a stroke right after she married Bach.
“When I came back from my honeymoon, I was determined to find out what was causing a painful feeling in my chest,” the singer said to Oprah Winfrey. “I went to the hospital, and two days later, the stroke came. That was the beginning of the sickness.”
In 2018 she released a memoir titled My Love Story. She revealed in the book that the stroke was a “powerful blow” to her body and that she “would have to work with a physiotherapist to learn how to walk again.”
“In the hospital, I didn’t believe that I couldn’t walk,” the singer had said to Winfrey during their interview. “I said, ‘Bull crap.’ Then I stepped out of bed and flopped to the floor and said, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ But I wasn’t depressed — I was just determined to fix it.”
In 2016, the singer had been diagnosed with intestinal cancer, with doctors telling her that both her kidneys were failing. Turner said she did not get depressed and instead resigned to the idea that perhaps her time had come.
“When the doctors said, ‘Both kidneys are out,’ I said, ‘I guess it’s my time to go,’” Turner said to Winfrey at the time. “I was in my 70s. In my thinking, I’d lived long enough, and I didn’t want to be on a machine for the rest of my life. My mother and sister were both gone.”
Her kidneys, according to doctors, were only functioning at 20 percent. This was a sure sign of the end. But this is when her husband Erwin Bach swooped in and saved the day. He donated his kidney to his wife, which shocked her as well. She later said of it, “I wondered if anyone would think that Erwin’s living donation was transactional in some way,” she wrote. “Incredibly, considering how long we had been together, there were still people who wanted to believe that Erwin married me for my money and fame. What else would a younger man want with an older woman? Erin always ignored the rumors.”
But what took her life, in the end, was natural causes, according to her representatives. She passed away from a natural death in her sleep at the age of 83 years old.
It is heartbreaking to know that Tina Turner is no longer with us, but we hope she is now at peace. Join us in sending her your thoughts and prayers.
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