Advertisement

Tina Turner's Marriage to Erwin Bach 'Sustained' Her amid Sons' Deaths, Health Issues (Exclusive)

The singer married Bach in 2013 after 27 years together

Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Tina Turner and Edwin Bach in 1989
Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Tina Turner and Edwin Bach in 1989

Tina Turner found strength through the love from her second husband and music executive Erwin Bach.

The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll, who died May 24 at age 83 after a long illness, experienced a great deal of loss in her lifetime with the death of her two sons Ronnie and Craig.

"This all happened within a couple of years of things. These are the loves of her life," Wayne Lukas, her tour stylist, told PEOPLE exclusively.

"I don't how she sustained [amid her health issues]," he added. "I don't know how she did it other than the love of Erwin Bach, because he really did love her."

<p> Michael Ochs Archives/Getty</p> Tina Turner, Ike Turner and sons Ike Jr., Craig, Ronnie and Michael

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Tina Turner, Ike Turner and sons Ike Jr., Craig, Ronnie and Michael

Related: Inside Tina Turner&#39;s 37-Year Romance with &#39;True Love&#39; Erwin Bach: &#39;I Instantly Felt an Emotional Connection&#39;

Lukas saw the "Proud Mary" singer in New York City for Tina: The Tina Turner Musical.

"I was so happy that she was able to attend that, but I could tell that something was not the same," he says. "When her other son died, I thought, 'It's too much.'"

Craig, who was born to Tina and saxophonist Raymond Hill but later adopted by ex Ike Turner, died by suicide in 2018 at age 59.

Later that month, Tina spread Craig's ashes in the ocean. "On Thursday, July 19 2018, I said my final goodbye to my son, Craig Raymond Turner, when I gathered with family and friends to scatter his ashes off the coast of California," she wrote on Twitter. "He was fifty-nine when he died so tragically, but he will always be my baby."

Meanwhile, her son Ronnie — the only son she had with Ike — died of colon cancer on Dec. 8, 2022, at the age of 62. One day later, Tina shared a tribute to her youngest son on Instagram. "Ronnie, you left the world far too early," she wrote. "In sorrow I close my eyes and think of you. My beloved son."

On top of the death of her two sons, the singer faced a number of health problems, which date back to 1978 when she was diagnosed with hypertension. In recent years, she had a stroke and experienced intestinal cancer and total kidney failure.

Bach was there through it all. In 2017, he donated a kidney when she went into kidney failure.

Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Tina Turner and Erwin Bach
Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Tina Turner and Erwin Bach

In her 2020 memoir, Happiness Becomes You, she added of life with Bach after Ike: "I lived through a hellish marriage that almost destroyed me, but I went on. I know that my medical adventure is far from over. But I'm still here — we're still here, closer than we 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."

The couple met in 1985 and tied the knot in 2013 after 27 years together. They lived together in Switzerland since 1994 and she earned her citizenship in 2013.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.