For years, Tina Turner had known what it meant to live inside a relationship defined by fear, conflict, and control. Her marriage to Ike Turner ended in a painful divorce, but leaving him was only the beginning of Tina’s journey toward building a life that belonged entirely to her.
Then, years later, she found something she had once seemed unlikely to experience again: a peaceful and lasting love.
Tina met German music executive Erwin Bach in 1985, when he was working for EMI and was part of the team involved in welcoming her to Europe. Their relationship gradually developed, and unlike Tina’s earlier marriage, this one unfolded away from the chaos that had defined much of her younger life.
Bach was considerably younger than Tina, but their age difference did not prevent the relationship from becoming serious. Over the following decades, they built a life together, spending much of their time in Switzerland and maintaining a relatively private relationship despite Tina’s enormous international fame.
For Tina, the contrast was extraordinary.
She had once been part of one of music’s most famous performing partnerships, but that success had come with a deeply troubled private life. With Bach, she experienced a relationship that she described very differently—one built around companionship, respect, and mutual support.
After spending nearly three decades together, Tina and Bach finally married in July 2013 in a civil ceremony in Switzerland.
Tina was 73.
The marriage was followed by an elaborate Buddhist wedding celebration at their home near Lake Zurich, attended by friends and celebrities. The occasion was a striking symbol of how far Tina’s life had moved from the years when she was struggling simply to escape her past.
This was not a woman beginning a new relationship because she needed someone to rescue her. Tina had already rebuilt her career, achieved enormous success as a solo artist, and established an independent life. Her marriage to Bach came after she had already proven that she could stand entirely on her own.
That made their relationship particularly meaningful.
Bach remained by Tina’s side through the serious health challenges she faced later in life. Their partnership continued as Tina stepped further away from performing and spent more time living privately in Switzerland.
In 2017, Tina received a kidney transplant, with Bach donating one of his kidneys to her. The extraordinary gesture showed the depth of their partnership after decades together.
Tina Turner died in May 2023 at the age of 83. Bach remained with her until the end of her life.
Her relationship with Bach therefore became almost the opposite of the story that had first made her personal life famous. Her marriage to Ike had been associated with violence and suffering; her later marriage was associated with stability, companionship, and a sense of peace that Tina had worked incredibly hard to find.
The contrast makes her story even more remarkable. Tina did not simply escape a painful past—she spent decades creating an entirely different future.
After surviving one of the darkest relationships in music history, Tina Turner eventually found a love that lasted nearly four decades. Her 2013 marriage to Erwin Bach was not another chapter of turmoil—it was the quiet, deeply personal happy ending she had fought for all her life.