Tina Turner's husband's loving act during her darkest hours
When Tina Turner met Erwin Bach in 1985, it was love at first sight.
The lasting kind, too, with the pair going on to enjoy nearly 40 years together - and 9 years of marriage after tying the knot in July 2013 - before the legendary singer passed away at 83, in the home the couple shared.
Tina had been battling various health issues in the years leading up to her passing, and had faced a particularly dark spot back in 2017 - but Erwin had been determined to help.
The story of their relationship - and Erwin’s heartfelt gift - was covered in Tina’s 2018 memoir, with the star sharing that she had first met her future husband after landing at Cologne’s airport ahead of her Private Dancer tour.
Bach, who at the time was the executive for EMI, had been there to collect her, along with a gift - a Mercedes Jeep. But as Tina noted, it wasn’t the car that caught her eye, but instead Bach.
“My heart suddenly started to beat ‘BOOM, BOOM, BOOM’,” she recalled. “My hands were ice cold.
“‘So this is what they call love at first sight’, I thought. ‘Oh my God, I am not ready for this’.”
It was a far cry from Tina’s first marriage to her abusive first husband, Ike Turner, and the couple happily settled into their quiet life in Zurich.
However, things took a challenging turn when - after 9 years of marriage - Tina’s health declined.
As she shared in her autobiography, “I couldn’t eat. I was surviving but not living,” she shared in her autobiography. I began to think about death.
“If my kidneys were going, and it was time for me to die, I could accept that. It was okay. When it’s time, it’s really time.”
Things became so difficult that she even looked into assisted suicide, before Bach stepped in to do what he could for his wife, telling Tina that he “didn’t want another woman, or another life”.
“Then he shocked me,” she said. “He said he wanted to give me one of his kidneys.”
The next step was to find out if they were a match - with tests confirming that they could go ahead with the donation - and the pair underwent surgery in 2017.
It was, thankfully, a success, though Tina’s favourite part of it all was seeing “when Erwin came rolling into my room in his wheelchair.
“He somehow managed to look good, even handsome, as he greeted me with an energetic ‘hi, darling!’
“I was so emotional - happy, overwhelmed, and relieved that we’d come through this alive.”
Images: Getty