Cher was good friends with Tina Turner, and during a phone call with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, she paid tribute to the legendary singer, who passed away Wednesday at the age of 83.
Cher said she had been visiting Tina in Switzerland, explaining, “I started going to visit her because I thought, ‘I need to put this time into our friendship, so she knows we haven’t forgotten her.’” She added, “So we all took turns going and spending time with her and it made her happy.”
Cher recalled one visit when Tina told her it would have to be quick. “Then five hours later we were laughing like crazy,” Cher said. “She was having a good time in spite of the fact that she was really sick and not wanting people to know about it.”
Although no cause of death for Turner had been revealed, Cher hinted that she had been suffering from kidney failure, noting Turner had “her dialysis machine in her house.” Turner had received a kidney transplant from her husband, Erwin Bach, in 2017.
Cher called Tina “one of the great artists in our generation,” saying “there was no other person like her.” She paid tribute to Turner’s strength and how she inspired others, with Cher noting, “She gave me lots of strength sometimes and I gave her lots of strength, too. I think we were perfect friends for each other, truthfully.”
Cher revealed the last gift Turner gave her on her final visit: a pair of her infamous “Tina Turner shoes.”
“The big high heels that she just (walked) around in like they were nothing,” Cher said.
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