Tina Turner’s oldest son Craig Raymond Turner has committed suicide.
Craig was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, aged 59, at his home in Studio City, California on Tuesday, TMZ reports.
Craig was pronounced dead at the scene at 12.38pm and Los Angeles County coroner’s office assistant chief Ed Winter confirmed his death was being reported as suicide, although the official autopsy is pending.
His famous mother Tina, 78, who was seen attending Haute Couture Paris Fashion Week just a few short hours before her son was found dead, was just 18 when she gave birth to Craig, whose father was a saxophonist named Raymond Hill.
Tina later married Ike Turner, who adopted her son and gave him his name.
Craig, who studied at Santa Monica College, was in real estate at Rodeo Realty, in the San Fernando Valley. He does not appear to have any children or be married at his time of death.
Tina has not yet made an official statement about Craig’s death.
The ‘Proud Mary’ singer has four children: her son Craig, and Ronnie, 57, her and Ike’s only child together, as well as Ike’s two children from his first marriage who Tina adopted when they married in 1962; Ike Jnr, 59, and Michael, 58.
In May 2005, Tina told Oprah her eldest, who had seen his mom get abused by Ike Snr., was ‘a very emotional kid’.
‘They saw the black eyes. Ike’s children never reacted, but my oldest son, Craig, was a very emotional kid. He’d always look down in sadness.
‘One day when Ike was fighting me, Craig knocked on the door and said, “Mother, are you all right?”
‘I thought, “Oh, please, don’t beat me at home.” I didn’t want my children to hear.
‘I tried to have meals with the children, talk to them about life. But Ike had no sense of that. He’d always come home late from the studio. It was awful.’
Tina said she only left Ike after Craig graduated from high school.
The turbulent story of Ike and Tina is part of music history. The drug addict son of a Mississippi preacher, Ike regularly beat up Tina until, after 16 years, she fled in the middle of the night in a bloodstained white suit with just 36 cents in her pocket.
She has lived in Switzerland since 1994 with German music producer Erwin Bach. The couple married five years ago.
Ike Jnr. said his mother had all but abandoned her kids after the move overseas, although he said they were looked after financially.
‘My mother is living her life – she has a new husband and she’s in Europe. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with the past.’
According to Ike Jnr, Tina, 78, has distanced herself from the part of her life spent with his father and has cut herself off from her children.
Ike Jnr said the last he knew, Craig was doing OK. Their other brother Michael is reportedly in a convalescent home in Southern California.
Ike and Tina were always absent parents, he claimed.
‘We were raised by housekeepers because my mother and father were gone 11 months out of a year.
‘My father took me out of school at 13. I ended up running his recording studio, plus going on the road with them. They made a lot of money on tour and my father used to make me count it until my hands were grey.’
Source: BBC