Cher Recalls Tina Turner Seeking Advice on How to Leave Abusive Husband Ike

Cher was a trusted confidant to the late Tina Turner, who was seeking a way to escape her then-husband Ike Turner before their 1978 divorce.

In her new memoir, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the pop music and entertainment icon detailed her own abusive marriage to Sonny Bono, and shared that Turner went to her for advice on how to leave Ike.

According to People, Cher wrote that she became friends with Turner after the "River Deep - Mountain High" singer appeared on The Sonny & Cher Show with Ike twice before. During one day of filming, Turner asked Cher to help cover a bruise on her arm with makeup before asking how she managed to leave Bono. The couple were married from 1964 to 1975, 23 years before Bono died after a tragic skiing accident.

"I looked at her and told her, 'I just walked out and kept on going,'" Cher wrote.

The actress-singer added that during the show's rehearsal, Ike "didn't smile one time" and played his guitar "without any emotion." "I just knew whatever he was feeling wasn't good," Cher continued.

The advice was especially meaningful, as Cher experienced suicide ideations "five or six times" during her unhappy marriage to Bono, who "manhandled" "seriously thought" about killing her.

"I stepped barefoot onto the balcony of our suite and stared down. I was dizzy with loneliness. I saw how easy it would be to step over the edge and simply disappear," Cher wrote. "For a few crazy minutes I couldn’t imagine any other option."

Elsewhere, she added that while standing on the balcony, "one morning everything changed."

"That night between shows I went out on the balcony again and this time I thought, I don’t have to jump off, I can just leave him," she wrote.

Tina Turner died last May at 83 years old. In an interview with People that October, Cher reflected on her final visit with the singer at her Switzerland home.

“I got to see her. She was lying on the chaise and said, 'I’m tired.' Then for two hours we were running around the house, and she was laughing hysterically," Cher said. "She just needed to talk and yell. That’s the Tina that I loved. We had the best time and talked about the old times."

Turner also gifted Cher with her high heels. "I’m not going to wear them. I just have them up in my closet," Cher added.