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Tina Turner told both Cher and Oprah Winfrey she was “ready” to die before passing away at age 83 on May 24.
“She fought this sickness for such a long time and she was so strong as you think she would be,” the “Believe” singer, 77, said Thursday when calling into MSNBC’s “The Beat with Ari Melber.”
“But I know towards the end, she told me once, she said, ‘I’m really ready. I just don’t want to put up with this anymore.’”
Winfrey, 69 — another close pal of Turner’s — mentioned in a separate interview that the “Proud Mary” hitmaker expressed similar sentiments.
“I was certainly aware that she was ill but I had seen her in 2019 and gone to visit her in the hospital and she had said to me then that she was actually ready to go, meaning, ready to leave the planet,” the former talk show host said on Thursday’s broadcast of “CBS Mornings.”
“I expected then that was going to be the last time that I saw her.”
Turner died after battling a “long illness,” her family announced Wednesday. One day later, her rep revealed that the legendary musician died of natural causes.
Though Cher didn’t identify what ailed Turner specifically, she acknowledged there was a dialysis machine in the “Missing You” singer’s Switzerland home.
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Dialysis is a treatment used for those in late stage kidney disease. Turner opened up about her health issues in a March 9 Instagram post in honor of International Kidney Day.
“My kidneys are victims of my not realising [sic] that my high blood pressure should have been treated with conventional medicine,” she told her followers at the time.
“I have put myself in great danger by refusing to face the reality that I need daily, lifelong therapy with medication. For far too long I believed that my body was an untouchable and indestructible bastion.”
Aware of Turner’s struggles, Cher said on “The Beat with Ari Melber” that she greatly cherished any time she spent with the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll in recent years.
“I started going to visit her because I thought, ‘I need to put this time into our friendship, so she knows we haven’t forgotten her,’” the “Strong Enough” songstress recalled.
“So, we all took turns going and spending time with her and it made her happy.”
Cher added that Turner gave her a parting gift during their last visit together. “She gave me a pair of shoes the last time I saw her,” she revealed. “What kind of shoes? Tina Turner shoes!”
