LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Tina Turner allegedly spent her final years in anguish, battling various health issues and lamenting her son's death. Afida, Tina's daughter-in-law, spoke candidly about the Queen of Rock n Roll's health concerns and the unbearable grief she experienced after outliving half of her children in her first interview since the 'I Don't Wanna Fight' singer died.
"She was ill for a long time, but she was extraordinarily strong too. She has been fighting for her life from 2017 until now. We knew how sick she was, but she was doing so well that this was not expected," Afida told the Daily Mail.
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'Gut-wrenching grief'
She acknowledged that Tina's strength and tenacity led everyone to believe she would live forever and added that the family was in shock over her loss. Ronnie, Afida's late husband and Tina's son, died from colon cancer just five months before the singer, and the family was still reeling from the "gut-wrenching grief," as per reports.
2018 saw the suicide of Tina's second son, Craig, who was 59 years old. According to Afida, Tina lived with daily sadness due to the loss of Craig and Ronnie. "If you lose a child, or a loved one, you are going to cry every morning and every night," she said.
The daughter-in-law of the 'Thunderdome' actress claims that Tina's Buddhist beliefs gave her courage. The knowledge that her mother-in-law has now been reunited with her boys was the only "dim light" that emerged from her mother-in-law's death, she said. "They never had time to spend together, and now all three of them are together," she remarked.
'Didn't know what took him to the edge'
Tina said shortly after Craig's death that she "didn't know what took him to the edge." He was the happiest he had ever been and was in a new relationship. She told the media, "At that stage, he had said to me that he had never met a woman that he felt that way about," as reported by RadarOnline.
"He was bringing her to meet me [for] his birthday in August. He had decorated his apartment that I bought him years ago," she continued. "I have no idea what pulled him down, except something that followed him with loneliness. I think it was something with being alone."
According to reports, the 'Proud Mary' singer was unwell and couldn't take care of her child in his final weeks. Afida claims that Ronnie exhibited Turner's fabled "force of nature and endurance" even while he fought the disease that so swiftly destroyed his health. "I believe you are born like that. You are born with her kind of energy. Ronnie was so like that too. He was so strong. He never got sick," she remembered. Tina Turner died at her home in Kusnacht, Switzerland, not far from Zurich, where a funeral service is now being organized.
