Tina Turner’s final years shown in rare photos

Suffering a series of health problems, Tina Turner hadn’t been seen in public for almost four years before her death.

Tina Turner in her final years.

Music legend Tina Turner lived a quiet life away from the spotlight since she largely retired from the music business in 2009.

Turner, who has died at the age of 83 following an extended period of ill health, had lived in a house on the shores of Lake Zurich in Switzerland since 1994 with her longtime partner, German music executive Erwin Bach (the pair married in 2013).

In recent years, projects like the Tina Turner musical – which opened last week in Sydney – and a 2021 documentary about her life have helped to solidify Turner’s legend status to new generations of music fans.

All the while, the woman herself was rarely seen, save for a handful of glimpses on her social media.

While the official Tina Turner Instagram account largely posts throwback photos and videos of Turner from the height of her career, in March 2021 fans saw a rare glimpse of present-day Turner as she celebrated the release of her new documentary.

Tina posted this photo in March 2021 to celebrate the release of her acclaimed documentary.

The candid photo taken by her husband showed Turner, then 81, looking more frail than fans would have been used to seeing her. Make-up free and dwarfed by the giant television behind her, Turner nonetheless said she was in good spirits.

“This Saturday, the documentary TINA will be released. I am so excited to share this movie with you – seeing the concert scenes made me relive some of the proudest moments of my life. I simply had to sing along and dance around my living room!” she captioned the photo.

A couple of months later, Turner’s Instagram posted another apparently real-time photo, showing the star in what appeared to be the garden of her Swiss manor.

‘What a wonderful morning!’ Tina’s team captioned this photo in June 2021.

“What a wonderful morning! I woke up to the lovely sounds of birds chirping outside. It’s moments like these reminding me that life is about appreciating its small beauties. Pursue every day with open arms and good will come,” she wrote.

And then in October 2021 – in what appears to be the most recent, non-throwback photo publicly issued of Turner – she is seen posing at a piano, smiling as she celebrates her long-overdue induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Tina Turner celebrates her 2021 Hall of Fame induction. Picture: Alberto Venzago, Instagram

Turner’s final public appearance came a couple of years earlier, in November 2019, when she travelled from Switzerland to New York to attend the Broadway premiere of the musical based on her life.

At the opening night of her musical in 2019. Picture: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

On-stage with Adrienne Warren (left), who played her in the musical. Picture: Getty

Turner’s husband could be seen helping her out of a chair backstage before she joined the musical’s cast on-stage for the curtain call:

Tina gets a helping hand from her husband (right). Picture: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

While Turner retired from releasing music and touring in 2009, she stayed active, helping to develop the musical and releasing several books, most recently 2020s self-help memoir Happiness Becomes You.

But Turner’s final years were also marked by tragedy: Both of her biological sons died, the first in 2018 and the second in 2022, losses which devastated the devoted mother.

And she also suffered a series of serious health problems that left her close to death, including a stroke, cancer and kidney failure.

In a 2018 interview, she said her fortunes had improved since husband Erwin Bach had donated her a kidney.

“I‘m happier than I’ve ever been in my life. I’m happier than I ever thought that life would become for me,” she told the BBC – but also said she had no fear of her own mortality.

“Death is not a problem for me,” she said. “I really don’t mind leaving.”

Originally published as Tina Turner’s final years shown in rare photos