Tina Turner's husband Erwin Bach donated his kidney to her to extend her life 6 years ago. Here's everything you need to know about their relationship.
- Tina Turner met music producer Erwin Bach in 1986, a decade after she divorced first husband, Ike.
- She and Bach — who had a 16-year age difference — dated for 27 years before tying the knot in 2013.
The couple met 37 years ago when Turner was 46 and Bach was 30.
As Bach recalled in the 2021 HBO documentary "Tina," he and the "Proud Mary" singer came into each other's lives when the music executive was tasked with greeting Turner at Dusseldorf airport in 1986.
"Her manager Roger asked me to pick up Tina," Bach said. "I enjoyed the ride. I enjoyed driving the artist. Actually a superstar for us, where you're normally a little nervous but I wasn't nervous either. I was just doing the job."
Turner — who was 16 years older than Bach — also spoke about their first meeting during a sitdown with Oprah Winfrey on "Oprah's Next Chapter" in 2013.
"He was another kind of handsome — great eyes." she said. "So I got in the car with Erwin and my heart was bu-bum, already. My hands were wet, and I thought, 'Oh, my God. This is love at first sight.'"
They were initially friends but began dating after Bach visited Los Angeles.
Later that same year Bach, who was originally from Germany, paid Turner and her manager Roger Davis a visit in Los Angeles, where he and Turner reconnected over dinner.
Music manager John Briley was also present at the dinner. Speaking to BBC News, he said that he asked the superstar why she had not brought along a date to which she responded: "John, I'm Tina Turner. Nobody asks me out."
Briley said that Bach then took the opportunity to make the move, telling Turner: "Well, I'll ask you out."
Rather than wait, Turner and Bach decided to go to a club together after they had finished eating, according to Briley.
He added that the next day, Turner surprised Bach with a brand new black Mercedes G-Wagon.
Bach proposed to Turner twice before she eventually said yes.
Bach first tried to pop the question to Turner after just four years of dating, when she turned 50.
Speaking to Winfrey, he said that he thought a woman should have some type of "commitment" from her partner by that age.
"Even though he asked me, I didn't think it was real. I didn't believe him," Turner said of his first two proposals. "But I didn't want to say no because I wanted to continue the relationship."
Before meeting Bach, Turner's longest relationship was with her musical collaborator, Ike Turner, who she later revealed had been physically abusive towards her throughout their marriage which lasted between 1962 and 1976.
In 2013, Turner and Bach tied the knot at their Swiss château, surrounded by family and friends.
Almost 30 years after their first encounter, the couple wed in a civil ceremony held at the Château Algonquin, their home off the shore of Lake Zurich in Küsnacht, Switzerland.
The ceremony was attended by 120 guests, including A-listers such as Winfrey, Bryan Adams, Sade, and David Bowie.
According to Entertainment Tonight, the bride walked down the aisle to the song "All for Love," which was performed by Adams.
The wedding came the same year Turner formally relinquished her US citizenship and made her move to Switzerland permanent as she had no plans to "reside in the United States in the future," per a US Embassy report.
Four years later, Bach donated one of his kidneys to Turner when her health took a turn for the worse.
In her 2018 memoir, "My Love Story," the Grammy Award-winning singer stated that, not long after their wedding, she started to experience a number of health issues.
"I've been on such a wild roller-coaster in the four years since my wedding that even I have difficulty keeping my medical catastrophes straight," she wrote, going to explain she experienced a stroke just three months later.
Turner's history with high blood pressure, something she had recently revealed she was first diagnosed with in 1978, also left her with severe kidney problems.
In 2016, Turner's husband Erwin Bach offered to donate one of his kidneys to his wife, which took her by surprise.
"He said he didn't want another woman, or another life," she recalled in her memoir. "Then he shocked me. He said he wanted to give me one of his kidneys."
The transplant took place the following year. and Turner opened up about the aftermath in a blog post for Show Your Kidneys Love in March this year.
She said that her body tried to reject the new kidney and "required more hospital admissions." At the time of writing, Tuner said that the "problems are still not quite resolved."
In 2020, Turner said that Bach had shown her that "true love doesn't require the dimming of my light so that he can shine."
Two years ago, Turner released another book titled "Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good," in which she opened up more about her relationship with Bach.
The singer praised her second husband for teaching her how "to love without giving up who I am," and praised Bach for not being "the least bit intimidated by my career, my talents, or my fame."
"He shows me that true love doesn't require the dimming of my light so that he can shine," she wrote. "On the contrary, we are the light of each other's lives, and we want to shine as bright as we can, together."
Referring to her first marriage to Ike, she continued: "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."
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