- Culture
- 08 Oct 18
Ike Turner left his bride Tina Turner "on the verge of tears" when he forced her to go to a whorehouse with him on their wedding night in Mexico, she has revealed.
"Guess where we went? ‘To a whorehouse! On my wedding night!" Tina Turner has said in an interview Mail on Sunday newspaper to promote her upcoming autobiography.
Tina says that Ike Turner, a drug addict who violently beat her, made her to watch a sex show with him in a Mexican brothel on their wedding night.
"The experience was so disturbing that I suppressed it, scratched it out, and created a different scenario, a fantasy of romantic elopement," Tina says.
"People can’t imagine the kind of man he was – a man who takes his brand new wife to a live, pornographic sex show right after their marriage ceremony.
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"There I sat, in this filthy place, watching Ike out of the corner of my eye, wondering, “Does he really like this? How could he?
"It was so ugly. The male performer was unattractive and seemingly impotent, and the girl… well, let’s just say that what was on display was more gynaecological than erotic.
"I was miserable the whole time, on the verge of tears, but there was no escape. We couldn’t leave until Ike was ready, and he was having a fine time."
By all accounts, the wedding ceremony itself wasn't a great experience either for Tina Turner, who is now 78. She decided not to question her husband-to-be's rushed decision for "quickie ceremony" in Mexico for fear of being forced to walk down the aisle with a black eye.
"Ike always had an angle. He must have figured out that Tijuana was the best place for a quickie ceremony. It probably wasn’t even legal. But there was no point in questioning his motives," Tina Turner recalls.
"It would just make him mad, and that might lead to a beating. I definitely didn’t want a black eye on my wedding day.
"Once we crossed over the border, we drove down a dusty road and found the Mexican version of a justice of the peace. In a small, dirty office, a man pushed some papers across a desk for me to sign, and that was it.
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"I may not have had much experience with weddings, but I knew the occasion was supposed to be emotional and happy. There was none of that at this wedding. Nobody said, 'You may kiss the bride'. No toasts. No congratulations. No mention of living happily ever after.
"As bad as that was, what came next was even worse. As long as Ike was in down-and-dirty Tijuana, he wanted to have fun, his kind of fun."
My Love Story - the book you have all been waiting for, is out next month. It comes from the heart. Have you pre-ordered your copy yet? Love Tina x #MyLoveStory #TinaTurnerBook https://t.co/VE6Go7NkPQ pic.twitter.com/wjkn5JH71E
— TinaTurner (@LoveTinaTurner) 18 de septiembre de 2018
Tina said she had to force herself to imagine that she was happy being Mrs Turner.
"By the next day, I was bragging to people, 'Guess what? Oh, Ike took me to Tijuana. We got married yesterday!' I convinced myself that I was happy, and I was happy for a brief time, because the idea that I was married actually held meaning for me. For Ike, it was just another transaction," Tina Turner recalled.
From the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s, Ike and Tina Turner were known as "one of the hottest, most durable, and potentially most explosive of all R&B ensembles".The duo was even inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.
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Ike's violence towards Tina was well documented in the critically acclaimed movie What's Love Got to do With It, which was released in 1993.
Tina finally found the courage to file for divorce in 1976.
Ike, who died in 2007, once shamelessly boasted in an interview: "Ain’t it part the woman’s fault if she stays around and lets me hit her?"
So desperate was Tina to get out of the marriage that she didn't ask for a dime in the divorce, seeing it as the price of freedom.
Tina went on to rebuild her solo career, achieving over €200 million record sales, far eclipsing Ike’s own success.