Tina Turner suffered many heartaches in her 83 years, but one of the biggest came just a few months before her passing – the loss of a second child.
Her son Ronnie was found dead outside his home in Los Angeles in December aged 62.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office determined that he died as a result of “complications from colon cancer,” as well as “atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease”.
A bereft Turner paid tribute to him on social media by sharing an emotional black and white picture of her with her eyes firmly shut.
Explaining the image in the caption, she penned: “Ronnie, you left the world far too early. In sorrow I close my eyes and think of you, my beloved son.”
His death came just four years after the death of mum-of-three Turner’s son Craig, after he took his own life in 2018.
Lamenting his loss on Twitter, she wrote: “My saddest moment as a mother. 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.”
Adding: “He was fifty-nine when he died so tragically, but he will always be my baby.”
Turner gave birth to Craig when she was 18 years old – before her marriage to Ike Turner. After they wed he adopted her son, with Craig taking his surname.
Craig’s biological father was Kings of Rhythm saxophonist Raymond Hill, who was a member of Ike’s band and enjoyed a relationship with Tina long before she caught her future husband’s eye.
She was married to Ike between 1962 and 1978, but it was not a happy union as he domestically abused her, which left her with a form of PTSD for the rest of her life.
