Cher has revealed that Tina Turner asked for her help and left her abusive marriage to Ike Turner in the late 1970s.

Faith icon Cher, 78, had a nearly five-decade friendship with Turner, who died aged 83 in 2023, and wrote in new book Cher: The Memoir, Part One how Turner had asked for her help to leave Ike after another bout of abuse .

The Best hitmaker Turner had asked Cher for help covering up a bruise, with Cher writing: ‘One of the days we were shooting she came into my room before we proceeded to ask if I had some cover up. She had a bruise on her arm that she didn’t want to show on camera. I told her I had something that would work.

She then asked Cher how she left her first husband Sonny Bono, whom she married in 1969 and divorced in 1975.

Cher wrote: ‘I looked at her and told her, “I just went out and kept going.”

The singer recalled how Turner’s appeal reminded her of when she asked Lucille Ball how to leave Bono.

Cher has revealed that Tina Turner asked for her help to leave her abusive marriage to Ike Turner in the late 1970s – pictured in 2008

Turner and Ike became famous in the 60’s and 70’s for The Ike and Tina Revue – but behind closed doors Ike inflicted sickening violence on Tina – picture 1963

She wrote: ‘I called Lucille Ball to ask for advice. I told her, “Lucy, I want to leave Sonny and you’re the only one I know who’s ever been in the same situation. What should I do?”

“Lucy and her husband had also become famous working together as stars on TV. And he was a big ladies’ man too. Then Lucy had left him.

Turner and Cher first met on the Sonny and Cher Show in 1972 – with the pair having a memorable duet on a performance of Shirley & Company’s Shame Shame Shame on The Cher Show in 1975.

Turner would divorce Ike in 1978.

In October 2023, Cher described her last visit to the Queen of Rock before her death in May of that year at the age of 83 as one filled with laughter.

The Oscar winner had traveled to Switzerland where Tina has lived since 1995.

‘I must see her. She lay on the chaise longue and said, “I’m tired,” she recounted People.

“Then we ran around the house for two hours and she was laughing hysterically,” she recalled.

Faith icon Cher, 78, had an almost five-decade friendship with Turner, who died aged 83 in 2023, and wrote in new book Cher: The Memoir, Part One how Turner had asked for her help to leave Ike after another bout of abuse – the picture in 1975 with Kate Smith

“She just needed to talk and scream,” she said of the Proud Mary singer who had battled a series of health problems, including a stroke, bowel cancer and kidney failure.

‘That’s the Tina I loved. We had the best time and talked about old times.

Cher and Tina came up in the music business around the same time. Both were married to older men, whom they later divorced.

Turner and Ike became famous in the 60s and 70s for The Ike and Tina Revue – but behind closed doors, Ike inflicted sickening violence on Tina.

A brief romance in Knoxville with saxophonist, Raymond Hill produced her first son Craig – before musician and singer Ike Turner invited her to join his band and then his bed.

Later came well-known years of domestic violence. “Split lips, black eyes, dislocated joints, broken legs and psychological torment became part of everyday life,” she writes.

“I was trying to stay sane while dealing with his insanity,” Turner said.

But her depression and despair from Ike’s addictions and infidelities led Tina to attempt suicide in 1968 by dropping 50 sleeping pills backstage before a concert.

It would take time but Tina found greater success than she had ever experienced in her youth with the release of her 1984 album Private Dancer when she was 45 years old.

Grammys, sold-out tours and even love quickly followed for Turner, who in 1986 began a relationship with German record executive Erwin Bach to whom she was married from 2013 until his death.

In a 2008 interview with Oprah Winfreysaw the two friends back at their first meeting.

“The first time Tina and I worked together, she came into the studio and I was expecting, you know, Tina Turner,” the former variety show host explained.

Cher wrote: ‘I looked at her and told her, “I just went out and carried on.” – pictured in 1999

But she comes in in a little silk shirt and pants and high heels. … Then we started talking, and I have a sailor’s mouth, and Tina is so kind — she talks like a lady.

“She just kept looking at me, like, ‘Wow, where are you from?'” Cher noted their personality differences.

When thinking about their upcoming performance, the “If I Could Turn Back Time” artist said, “I remember thinking, ‘I have to dance with Tina Turner.’

“Do you know how that feels?” she asked.

“It’s like dancing with a hurricane.”

The two collaborated again on Proud Mary in 1999 with Elton John on VH1’s Divas Live, and reunited backstage in 2008 at the Grammy Awards. Cher introduced Beyonce with whom Tina performed a medley that included Proud Mary.