Tina Tuner and Ike Turner’s son, Ronnie Tuner has reportedly passed away. Tina Turner has had a successful career that has unfortunately been eclipsed by a tough life. The two have gone hand and hand, and for every milestone, she has had some profound tragedy overlap with it. Turner is in another landmark year, announcing her retirement following her well-received broadway show and HBO Max documentary, but unfortunately, this year will now be marred by the passing of her son Ronnie Turner.
Ronnie Turner is unfortunately the second son Tina has lost. Tina Turner’s rise to stardom was swift and epic. She and Ike Turner became megastars in the late ’60s and early ’70s and pioneers of rock and roll music. They traveled the world, started a family, and built an empire. Behind the scenes, though, Ike was a tyrant who would abuse Tina for years and ultimately drive a wedge between them. In total, they raised four children together, Raymond, Ronnie, Michael, and Ike Turner Jr.
Through both Tina’s ’90s biopic and recent documentary, her boys talked about how traumatic life in their household was. They witnessed Ike do unspeakable things to their mother and had to also deal with the busy work schedule of their parents being successful musicians. Raymond spoke at great length about the long-term traumas of being raised under Ike Turner. Unfortunately, Raymond never really recovered from the damage of his childhood and took his own life in July of 2018. He was only 59 years old.
Following Tina’s divorce from Ike Turner in the late ’70s, she was left to raise her sons alone. She opened up about how difficult it was in a 1989 interview, saying, “Ike gave me those children and not a penny to look after them with. I was left trying to take care of his kids and mine.” At the time, Ronnie had opened up about his mother abandoning them, something Tina refuted. “As for the accusations about me being a bad mother to Ronnie, he was put through private schools and given allowances and everything you can give a kid.”
Tina and Ronnie seemed to have a tough relationship. She opened up about “keeping an eye on him” but getting tired of taking care of him well into his 30s. She admitted to cutting everyone off at one point, stating that while she loved all her sons, she did not want to let them use her. Around the time of Raymond’s passing, Ronnie admitted that he and his brothers had not spoken to his mother since around 2000. He felt like Tina was too wrapped up in her new life in Europe to want “anything to do with the past.”
It’s unclear if they ever reconciled, but today Tina has dealt the devastating news that Ronnie, too, had passed away. Her second son to perish, Ronnie, is said to have suffered some type of cardiac arrest after complaining of trouble breathing. He would collapse outside of someone’s home, where he was later pronounced deceased. He briefly appeared in his mother’s 1993 biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”
Ronnie was only 62 years old. Ronnie had health issues over the years, including cancer.