Simply the Bravest: Tina Turner’s real legacy lies in the way she overcame shocking abuse

Human rights defender Bianca Jagger on the legendary performer who showed women how to overcome appalling adversity

Her strength let light into the darkest imaginable places (PA Media)

Tina Turner had an indomitable spirit. Her courage and endurance were an inspiration to women throughout the world and, in particular, women who are victims of domestic violence.

Her strength let light into the darkest places, especially at home when facing abuse from her then-husband, Ike Turner.

She was an electrifying force for music, but her courage was as much a definition of who she was, as her charisma and talent as a singer.

When she first spoke out about domestic violence, it was an act of bravery. She exposed herself publicly and fearlessly. In 1981, she told an interviewer: “I was insanely afraid of that man”. For the first time, the secret trauma at the heart of the wildly successful musical duo, Ike & Tina Turner, was revealed.

She drew back the veil on a horrendous reality, masked by commercial success. Tina’s scorching description of her marriage included being forced to watch a live sex show in a brothel on her wedding night and being beaten with a shoe stretcher when she was pregnant – truly catastrophic degradation.

She spoke of Ike throwing scalding coffee over her and of being brutalised with a coat hanger. She admitted she was afraid to talk about the abuse she suffered “because of what I would get from Ike”.

In 1968, she tried to take her own life. Thank God she had the courage to come back, to find herself and her strength and not to endure the abuse any longer.

Ike, who died 16 years ago, in 2007, always denied that he mistreated her, but nobody ever doubted Tina’s truth, her courage or her talent.

In the early 1980s, she refused to be defined by the “victim” label placed on her and instead chose to reinvent herself stylistically, through rock and roll music and fashion. She also dashed the notion that women were “past their prime” once they got over 40.

Whenever I met her, she was a force of nature both on stage and off it. Her energy and her joie de vivre were irresistible. She was one of the greatest singers and a fabulous dancer. Anyone who met her, fell for her. She even taught Mick how to dance.

But her real legacy will be that she was a role model for women.

Her words are haunting – she told the journalist Carl Arrington she had promised Ike she would “never leave him”. “I felt obligated to stay in the marriage and I was afraid,” she said. “I didn’t want to hurt him, and after he beat me up, I was sitting there all bruised and torn and all of a sudden I’m feeling sorry for him. Maybe I was brainwashed.”

But Tina finally did leave him – in 1978, after she could no longer put up with what she described as “torture”.

Her bravery laid a path for freedom for other women. She taught us that we have to take the reins of our life, and that our suffering is escapable – that it is possible to leave.

Her words remain haunting: “I was living a life of death. I didn’t exist. But I survived it. And when I walked out, I walked. I didn’t look back.”

Those are the words of a woman speaking on behalf of all women and inspiring them to show immense courage while facing down dark – and brutally repressive – behaviour by men. She experienced the worst treatment imaginable and it was hidden and harrowing, but Tina’s heroism liberated her from it.

I believe her songs and her performances will transcend her traumatic story – we’ve seen that with all sorts of artists – but at this moment, I want to herald her for what she really was: simply the best.