In the final chapter of Tina Turner’s life, the world knew very little about what was happening behind the walls of her home in Switzerland.
By then, Tina had stepped away from touring, embraced a quieter life with her husband Erwin Bach, and spent years dealing privately with serious health problems. To fans, she remained the indestructible Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll. Inside her home near Zurich, however, the woman behind that title was growing increasingly tired.
One of the people who understood that was Cher.
The two women had known each other for decades, going back to the 1970s when Tina appeared on Cher’s television shows and the pair performed together. Their personalities were different, but the friendship endured long after the cameras stopped rolling.
As Tina’s health declined, Cher made a deliberate decision to spend more time with her.
She later explained that she began visiting Tina in Switzerland because she wanted her old friend to know that she had not been forgotten. Cher said several friends took turns visiting, bringing company and laughter into Tina’s increasingly private world.
One of those visits became their last.
Cher remembered arriving at Tina’s home and finding her resting on a chaise. Tina initially warned her that she was tired and might not have enough energy for a long visit.
What happened next surprised even Cher.
Before long, the two women were laughing loudly, moving around the house and talking about the old days. Cher later said Tina was laughing hysterically, describing the moment as a return of the spirited woman she had always known and loved.
For a few hours, illness seemed to move into the background.
There were no stadium lights, no dancers and no audience waiting for Tina to become the larger-than-life performer they remembered.
There were simply two old friends telling stories.
Before Cher left, Tina gave her something unexpected.
A pair of high heels.
For almost anyone else, shoes might have seemed like an ordinary gift. From Tina Turner, they carried a different meaning. High heels had been part of her stage identity for decades, inseparable from the short dresses, relentless dancing and physical confidence that made her performances instantly recognizable.
Cher later said she had no intention of wearing them.
She kept them in her closet.
The shoes became a small piece of Tina that remained after the final visit ended.
Tina died on May 24, 2023, at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, after a long illness. She was 83. Her representatives said she died peacefully, surrounded by the private life she had spent decades building away from the chaos of fame.
Cher later revealed another detail that made those final visits even more poignant.
Tina had been seriously ill for some time and had fought through years of health problems, including kidney failure that eventually led to a transplant from Erwin in 2017. Cher said Tina had reached a point where she was tired after fighting for so long.
Yet that was not how Cher remembered their last afternoon together.
She remembered laughter.
That distinction matters.
Tina Turner had spent much of her public life associated with survival, pain and extraordinary resilience. Her final years, however, were not defined only by illness. They also contained companionship, humor and the kind of friendship that no longer needed an audience.
There is no reliable evidence identifying the final person Tina called before her death.
But we do know that one of her last important goodbyes was shared with a woman who had known her for nearly half a century.
Cher left Tina’s home carrying a pair of high heels. What she carried emotionally was something much harder to replace: the memory of two old friends laughing together, neither of them knowing with certainty that this would be the last time.