'I had a terrible life, I just kept going': Tina Turner talks overcoming obstacles

Tina Turner has had amazing career success, but most fans also know of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her late ex-husband and musical partner, Ike Turner.

Now, in a new interview with The New York Times, Turner says despite the hurdles she overcame, she doesn't feel like she's a role model for women, even though many fans view her that way.

"I don't necessarily want to be a 'strong' person," she says. "I had a terrible life. I just kept going. You just keep going, and you hope that something will come."

Turner, 79, also doesn't consider herself a feminist icon and said she has no interest in trying to "recast her life through #MeToo."

"I identify only with my life," she says, noting that when others were holding her up as an example, "I was busy doing it. Doing the work."

Now, however, she relishes her retirement from showbiz. Married to her longtime partner, German music executive Erwin Bach, since 2013, Turner, a Swiss citizen, lives in Switzerland.

"I was just tired of singing and making everybody happy," she tells the Times. "That's all I'd ever done in my life."

Meanwhile, her life continues to inspire, as the subject of a Broadway musical that starts previews Oct. 12 before officially opening on Nov. 7. And while Turner wasn't able to watch her biopic "What's Love Got to Do With It?," finding it too painful, she has no problem watching "Tina: The Tina Turner Musical."

As the Times notes, when the show opened in London, Turner even came on stage during the curtain call and told the actor who played Ike, "I forgive you." That's something she didn't do in real life.

"I don't know if I could ever forgive all that Ike ever did to me," she tells the Times. But, she adds with a laugh, "Ike's dead. So we don't have to worry about him."