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Rolling Stone Excerpt:<\/p>\n RUTH GLENN REMEMBERS<\/span>\u00a0the first time she read\u00a0I, Tina,<\/em>\u00a0the\u00a0powerful 1986 autobiography\u00a0<\/a>in which\u00a0Tina Turner<\/a>\u00a0details the extensive abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband, Ike.<\/p>\n Glenn, who read the book when it was first published, was \u201cmoved and encouraged\u201d by Tina\u2019s personal accounts; they were particularly momentous because it was at a time when \u201cwe weren\u2019t even talking about\u00a0domestic violence<\/a>\u00a0yet.\u201d In the 1980s, this wasn\u2019t something celebrities \u2014 or, really, much of anyone \u2014 discussed publicly. People didn\u2019t have \u201cthe right words\u201d or language to describe it. \u201cHere\u2019s this icon saying: It\u2019s okay to talk about this,\u201d says Glenn. \u201cShe broke that barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n Glenn also recalls thinking, \u201cIf this can happen to this beautiful, strong, wonderful Black woman who has all of these things going on for her, it could happen to any of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Six years later, Glenn would leave her own abusive marriage. Fifteen years after\u00a0I, Tina\u00a0<\/em>became\u00a0a national bestseller<\/a>, Glenn would read the book again, when it was taught as part of a\u00a0domestic abuse<\/a> course she took at the University of Colorado.<\/p>\n The professor taught the students that Turner\u2019s book was \u201coutlining the domestic violence 101 dynamics,\u201d says Glenn, who is now CEO and president of the\u00a0National Coalition Against Domestic Violence<\/a>. In addition to the extreme physical abuse she endured, Turner spoke about Ike\u2019s need to control her, his manipulation, and his financial abuse, a controlling tactic that is very common but not often discussed.<\/p>\n Tina left her husband and manager Ike Turner in 1976 after he repeatedly punched her while traveling from the Dallas airport to their hotel during their tour. In her book, Tina wrote that she looked at a sleeping Ike just before she fled and thought, \u201cYou just beat me for the last time, you sucker.\u201d She put on sunglasses to disguise her black eyes and ran across several lanes of traffic on a highway, nearly getting hit by a truck. While she only had 36 cents in her pocket, she convinced the white hotel clerk to give her a room at the Ramada Inn, before eventually fleeing to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n At a time when abuse survivors were still being called \u201cbattered wives,\u201d and their experiences swept under the rug or treated as private matters to be handled at home, Tina Turner was boldly and courageously depicting how horrendous living with abuse was, with her unflinching honesty.<\/p>\n Beginning with a 1981 interview in\u00a0People<\/em>\u00a0magazine<\/a>, Turner revealed her experiences suffering from domestic abuse in her 16-year-marriage to Ike. She would go on to detail horrifying allegations of abuse in countless interviews and two memoirs, as well as a documentary released in 2021. She reported incidents of Ike burning her with coffee, beating her with shoes and hangers, raping her and breaking her jaw and nose before they took the stage and performed together.<\/p>\n Glenn tears up as she talks about reading Tina\u2019s book. \u201cI will never forget the image I had in my head of her running across the highway, bleeding, being strong and saying \u2018I have got to do this.\u2019 To be Tina Turner, with pocket change, saying \u2018Enough.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe left a legacy in as much her music as being a survivor and speaking out,\u201d adds Glenn, who recently published\u00a0her own memoir<\/a> detailing her abusive marriage. \u201cA Black woman survivor speaking out \u2014 and even the challenges that she had after that as a Black woman and a survivor.<\/p>\n Part of why Tina went public with the abuse is that the music industry was having a tough time understanding why she was starting her own solo career. \u201cI wanted to stop people from thinking that Ike and Tina was so positive, that we were such a great team,\u201d Tina recounted in her 2021\u00a0HBO documentary<\/a>. \u201cSo I thought, if nothing else, at least people know.\u201d<\/p>\n After her divorce, Turner cleaned houses and would perform her former hits as cabaret acts in Las Vegas, until she released her\u00a0breakout solo album<\/a>,\u00a0Private Dancer<\/em>, in 1984. She won three Grammys, and her career took off. Meanwhile, she continued to talk about her experience leaving her abusive marriage in blockbuster interviews with Oprah and Gayle King. Her autobiography was turned into a 1993 movie\u00a0What\u2019s Love Got to Do With It<\/em>\u00a0starring Angela Bassett. (\u201cHow do we say farewell to a woman who owned her pain and trauma and used it as a means to help change the world?\u201d Bassett said\u00a0in a statement<\/a>\u00a0after Turner\u2019s death. \u201cTina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful future filled with love, compassion, and freedom should look like.\u201d)<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>By Lorena O’Neil
\nMay 25, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n