While Tina Turner’s death came as a shock to the whole world, interviews preceding her death give fans some solace in knowing that the Queen of Rock n Roll was ready for her passing. In 2008 Turner, then 68, spoke with talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey and talked about getting older and how she was ‘excited’ to do so.
“I have to say, I welcome it with open arms,” Turner said of aging. “My senior life is so much better than when I was young. The wisdom, the way I think. My attitude towards things. It really — there is a change when you’re still healthy and you still look good, your outlook changes on everything. You’re really happy. You don’t mind being 68. That number doesn’t mean a thing.”
Later in 2013, Turner would have another sit-down with Oprah where she doubled down on the comments she made about getting older, saying that she did not have any regrets about what she said five years prior. She then continued to add, “I’m not excited to die, but I don’t regret when it’s time for me.”
Despite the warning signs of her passing, Oprah still said Turner’s death was a blow. The talk-show host revealed during an interview with CBS on Thursday that when she went to visit Turner in the hospital back in 2019, Turner told her she was “ready to go.”
“I certainly was 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 actually was ready to go, meaning ready to leave the planet,” Oprah told the morning program.
Oprah was joined by long-term friend Gayle King in the CBS interview and together the pair reflected on the late singer fondly, applauding her resilience against the many illnesses that tried her during the later parts of her life. Gayle said that Turner, “Always kept coming back.”
Sources:
https://www.etonline.com/why-tina-turner-said-she-was-excited-about-death-205247
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12124593/Tina-Turner-told-Oprah-ready-2019.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gayle-king-oprah-winfrey-tina-turner/
youtube.com/watch?v=eMzus2EwHS4
