Tina Turner Opens Up About Losing Her Son Craig At 59 To Suicide: ‘I Think He Was Lonely’

Tina Turner talked about the heartbreak in losing her 59-year-old son Craig to suicide last July, and revealed the reasons she thinks he made the decision he did, in a new interview with ‘CBS News’.

Tina Turner, 79, has positive thoughts about where her son, Craig, who took his own life at age 59 in July 2018, is now. The legendary singer sat down with CBS News‘ Gayle King for an in-depth interview about her life and briefly mentioned why she thinks Craig made the heartbreaking decision to leave this world and what helps her get through the sadness of his absence. “I think Craig was lonely, that’s what I think really got him more than anything else,” Tina said in the interview.” I have pictures all around of him smiling, and I think I’m sensing that he’s in a good place. I really do.”

In addition to Craig, Tina opened up about her own recent struggles, which includes various health issues such as a stroke, intestinal cancer, and kidney failure. She revealed that her husband, Erwin, 63, who she married in 2013, offered her his own kidney when she needed one. “And I said, ‘Yes, but darling, you’re young and I’m already old. And I don’t mind’,” she explained. “In Buddhism, you’re taught that you live and you die. It’s something that’s accepted. And so then after Erwin said that, I said, ‘Okay darling, if you’re willing to give up a kidney, then fine.'”

Tina’s known for not only her popular singing career, but also her incredible eventful life, which has had some pretty intense ups and downs, including the infamous marriage with the late singer Ike Turner from 1962-1978. Her new memoir, My Love Story, which was released in Oct. 2018, touches upon the memories of her extraordinary life, and in her latest interview, Tina admitted she had to be convinced to write it. “I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do the book because there’s still a lot to be said,'” she told Gayle King. “So then we started working on it. And it was a little boring because you’re always talking about yourself and what you did.”

Tina, who was born in Tennessee, now lives in Lake Zurich, Switzerland, where she obtained citizenship in 2013. She gave up her American citizenship that same year.