Who Is Tina Turner's Husband? All About Erwin Bach

Tina Turner was married to her longtime partner Erwin Bach for 10 years before her death in May 2023

Tina Turner found true love with husband Erwin Bach.

The "Queen of Rock and Roll" met the former music executive a decade after she fled from her abusive first husband and music partner Ike Turner, with whom she shares four kids. (Turner and Ike's oldest son, Craig, died by suicide in 2018, and their youngest, Ronnie, died of complications from colon cancer in December 2022.)

Turner's tour stylist told PEOPLE that Bach's love "sustained" the singer after she lost the "loves of her life."

Turner and Bach dated for 27 years and were married for 10 years until her death on May 24, 2023, from a long illness. Over the course of their decades-long relationship, the couple shared plenty of sweet moments and milestones together. Turner also credited Bach for teaching her how "to love without giving up who I am."

"We grant each other freedom and space to be individuals at the same time we are a couple," the singer wrote in her book, Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good. "Erwin, who is a force of nature in his own right, has never been the least bit intimidated by my career, my talents, or my fame. He shows me that true love doesn't require the dimming of my light so that he can shine. On the contrary, we are the light of each other's lives, and we want to shine as bright as we can, together."

While the pair kept their relationship relatively private over the years, they did open up about their love story in the 2021 HBO documentary Tina.

Keep reading to learn more about the late Tina Turner's husband Erwin Bach and their decades-long relationship.

He is a former music executive

Bach was an executive with the European record label EMI, which worked with acts like Queen, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd and Radiohead. Turner worked with EMI to distribute her music overseas.

The label broke up into smaller companies in 2012. Before its dissolution, EMI was one of the largest record labels in the music industry.

He and Turner met at an airport and it was love at first sight

Turner and Bach met in 1985 at the airport in Düsseldorf, Germany. Bach was sent by EMI to greet the singer as she arrived. In the 2021 HBO documentary Tina, the couple said they had an instant connection from the moment they locked eyes.

"Her manager Roger [Davies] asked me to pick up Tina," Bach recalled in the documentary.

"So Roger said to me, 'Tina, you ride with Erwin,' and I wanted to go, 'Yay!' " Turner added with a laugh. "He was really so good-looking. My heart [was beating fast] and it means that a soul has met, and my hands were shaking."

The pair began a romantic relationship that same year.

"Falling in love with my husband, Erwin, was another exercise in leaving my comfort zone, of being open to the unexpected gifts that life has to offer," Turner wrote in Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good.

"The day I first met Erwin, at an airport in Germany, I should have been too tired from my flight, too preoccupied with thoughts of my concert tour," she continued. "But I did notice him, and I instantly felt an emotional connection. Even then, I could have ignored what I felt — I could have listened to the ghost voices in my head telling me that I didn't look good that day, or that I shouldn't be thinking about romance because it never ends well. Instead, I listened to my heart. I left my comfort zone and made it a priority to get to know Erwin. That simple first meeting led to a long, beautiful relationship — and my one true marriage."

He is over 16 years younger than Turner

When Turner and Bach met, he was 30 years old at the time. Turner was 47.

Over the years, the couple received some flack for their age gap, which Turner briefly discussed in her memoir, My Love Story. "Incredibly, considering how long we had been together, there were still people who wanted to believe that Erwin married me for my money and fame. What else would a younger man want with an older woman? Erwin always ignored the rumors," she wrote.

He married Turner in 2013

After 27 years together, the pair tied the knot in a civil ceremony in Switzerland. Turner was 73 years old at the time.

Days after their wedding, Turner and Bach threw a lavish, star-studded party at their lakeside Switzerland estate. Oprah Winfrey, Giorgio Armani and David Bowie were among the 120 guests, and the couple's home was decorated with 70,000 red and yellow roses from Holland. Men were asked to attend the event in black tie, while the women wore shades of white and beige. Attendees participated in a traditional Buddhist water blessing ritual, a nod to the faith Turner had been practicing since the '70s.

After nearly three decades together, the wedding came as a surprise. In 2000, Turner and Bach downplayed wedding chatter and seemed content with their leisurely European lifestyle.

"We are married — we just haven't walked down the aisle, and until there's a need to, we probably won't," Turner said at the time.

"We don't need a marriage to be together," Bach agreed, adding, "Some people need that security thing, but I think if you're internally happy with your partner, you don't need symbols."

He proposed to Turner multiple times

During an interview on Oprah's Next Chapter, Bach revealed that he asked Turner to marry him "twice" when she turned 50.

"I was trying to show Tina my commitment. I think when a woman turns 50 she should have a commitment from her partner," he explained. "I was committed and I wanted to show this, so I went down on my knee. I never did that before in my life, I was never married before. And I had my ring ready ... I had everything ready."

Winfrey asked, "So she sort of said nothing and strung you along for 23 years?" to which Bach replied, "But that was okay with me, I could read between the lines."

"Even though he asked me I didn't think it was real, I didn't believe him," Turner added. "But I didn't want to say 'No' because I wanted to continue the relationship."

Bach also shared that hearing about the abuse Turner endured while married to Ike was "hard for him to hear."

He gave Turner a kidney

In Turner's 2018 memoir My Love Story, the star shared that she had spent years dealing with life-threatening illnesses. She suffered a stroke just three weeks after her wedding to Bach, and in 2016, she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer.

After experiencing unpleasant side effects from treatment, Turner turned to homeopathic remedies, which only worsened her condition. Before long, she was faced with total kidney failure.

"The consequences of my ignorance ended up being a matter of life and death," she wrote. "At this terrible moment of guilt and self-recrimination, I learned something wonderful about Erwin. He never reproached me for my mistake. Instead, he was loyal, kind and understanding — and determined to help me get through all this alive."

Bach then donated his own kidney to his wife. The operation took place in April 2017 and was largely a success, though Turner still experienced mild symptoms.

"I'm happy to say that, thanks to my beloved husband, Erwin, giving me one of his kidneys, the gift of life, I'm in good health and loving life every day," Turner later wrote in Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good. "I'm also thankful that I've not only survived, but thrived, so that I can pass on to you this book containing precious gifts that were given to me — the greatest gifts I can offer."

He and Turner lived together in Switzerland

The couple moved to Switzerland in 1995, per a 2019 profile for the New York Times, and Turner relinquished her American citizenship in 2013.

"I was just tired of singing and making everybody happy," she told the outlet of her retirement. "That's all I'd ever done in my life."

She added, "I don't sing. I don't dance. I don't dress up."

In October 2021, Turner sold her music rights, along with the rights to her image, name and likeness, to the publishing company BMG. The transaction was worth around $50 million.

"Like any artist, the protection of my life's work, my musical inheritance, is something personal," Turner said in a press release. "I am confident that with BMG and Warner Music my work is in professional and reliable hands."

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