Tina Turner felt ready for death but was still “having a good time” as she battled health issues, according to Cher.
The pop legend has opened up about her friendship with Turner, who died on Wednesday at the age of 83, revealing that she spent time with the “What's Love Got to Do with It” singer in the final months of her life.
And Cher says her friend remained in good spirits despite her troubles.
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Speaking to MSNBC, Cher said: “I know that everyone is very sad, but the truth is … she fought this sickness for such a long time and she was so strong, as you think she would be.
“But I know towards the end, she told me once, she said: ‘I’m really ready. I just don’t want to put up with this anymore’.”
The “Believe” star went on to reveal why she started visiting Turner at her home in Switzerland regularly, saying: “I started going to visit her because I thought: ‘I need to put this time into our friendship so she knows that we haven’t forgotten her’.”
Cher said: “She was really happy. Like the first time I went, she was laying on this little chaise that she looks out on the lake with. She said: ‘I can’t spend too much time’ and five hours later, we were laughing like crazy.
“She was having a good time in spite of the fact that she was really sick and not wanting people to know about it, but she had her dialysis machine in her house and so that’s how she was doing it.”
The singer said of their friendship: “As a woman, she gave you lots of strength.
“And I’m sure she’s encouraged so many young people, but 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.”
Turner died from natural causes but no further details about her death have been released apart from a statement which confirmed she'd been suffering from a “long illness”.
Two months before she died, the singer admitted she was in “great danger” due to kidney disease which had been caused by long-running problems with high blood pressure.
She suffered a stroke in 2013 and battled intestinal cancer before undergoing a kidney transplant in 2017.