Tina Turner Said She and Her Kids Were 'Scarred in Different Ways' by Ex-Husband Ike's Domestic Abuse

Tina shared four boys with Ike: Craig, Ike Jr., Michael and Ronnie

The late Tina Turner endured years of abuse by ex-husband Ike Turner — and it left a lasting effect on herself and their kids.

In her 2018 memoir My Love Story: Tina Turner, the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll reflected on her relationship with Ike.

"We were away from the house more than we were there," she wrote of her family (Tina and Ike shared four boys — Craig, Ike Jr., Michael and Ronnie).

But when everyone was together, she wrote, Ike's brutality made things worse.

The children "saw my black eyes and heard our endless fighting... I knew it would make an impression on them, and it did," wrote Tina. "We were scarred in different ways by Ike's behavior."

Related: Tina Turner Wasn't 'Scared of Death' After 'Wonderful Last Part of Life,' Says Longtime Friend (Exclusive)

In December 1981, the "Proud Mary" songstress — who died May 24 after a long illness at age 83 — spoke out for the first time about her abusive marriage to Ike and how she escaped it in an interview with PEOPLE.

"I was living a life of death," Tina said at the time. "I didn't exist. I didn't fear him killing me when I left, because I was already dead. When I walked out, I didn't look back."

The eight-time Grammy winner and Ike, who died of a cocaine overdose in December 2007, were married in 1962, divorcing 16 years later. She went on to marry second husband Erwin Bach in 2013, after 27 years together.

Tina made her escape from Ike on July 1, 1976, while the pair were on tour, staying at the Statler Hilton in Dallas. Ike had beaten her "the entire way from the airport to the hotel," Tina recalled to PEOPLE. "By the time we got to the hotel, the left side of my face was swollen like a monster's."

At the hotel, Tina said, "I massaged him and cooed, 'Can I order you any food, dear?' Then he made the mistake of going to sleep." With only 36 cents in her pocket and a Mobil credit card in her wallet, Tina sprinted across the freeway in the dark of night to another hotel.

A friend bought her a plane ticket home to L.A. and out of Ike's life. "I felt proud," Tina told PEOPLE. "I felt strong."

Her kids also felt the strain in their relationship. The 2021 HBO documentary Tina included an interview with Craig — who died by suicide in 2018 — from 2000.

"She really took to raising us personally because basically that was her happiness to a certain extent," he said.

Related: Tina Turner Credited David Bowie for Saving Her Career After 'Abusive' Marriage to Ike Turner

In 2005, Tina told O, The Oprah Magazine that Craig was a "very emotional kid" who reacted morosely to his parents' abusive marriage. "He'd always look down in sadness," she told Oprah Winfrey of her son.

After Tina and Ike split, the singer also insisted that she no longer work with stepson Ike Jr., who had a musical career of his own.

He briefly worked as Tina's sound engineer following her split from Ike Sr., who wanted his son and ex to put an end to their professional relationship. "When my mother and father separated, he did not want me working with her — and he beat me in the head with a nickel-plated .45 pistol," Ike Jr. alleged.

In 2018, Ike Jr. said he hadn't spoken to Tina in over a decade. "I haven't talked to my mother since God knows when — probably around 2000," he told the Mail. "My mother is living her life — she has a new husband and she's in Europe. She doesn't want to have anything to do with the past."

Ronnie died of colon cancer last December at the age of 62. Meanwhile, in 2017, Ike Jr. told Bobby Eaton that Michael was in a wheelchair and had had "several strokes and seizures."

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