Regardless of genre or decade,
mistreating partners is an all-too common feature in the lives of popular musicians.
Tina Turner's struggles with husband Ike Turner were widely publicized. In fact, Ike himself
not only admitted to being abusive, but also showed absolutely no remorse. In an interview,
a reporter prompted Ike, calling him a "bad man" if the allegations were true. Ike responded,
"Well, I would say this, maybe so, if it was true, but if that's what it took to
make her what she is today, then I have no regrets. There's no scars on Tina."
The reporter spoke to Tina in that same interview,
and she confirmed that she knew Ike was violent and mentally unstable when they
met. The abuse wasn't just physical, according to her. In her autobiography, My Love Story,
Tina Turner expressed that once Ike realized their relationship would be professionally
profitable, he exhibited controlling tendencies in other ways. Tina wrote,
"Ike needed to control me, to own me, economically and psychologically, so I could never leave him."
Reportedly, it was Ike's idea to change her stage name to Tina Turner. In a Vanity Fair report on
the 2021 documentary Tina, other details emerged, including how controlling Ike reportedly was over
her money, as well as how abusive, with Tina saying he beat her when she was pregnant.
Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston's relationship crumbled over time. During a 2009 interview with
Oprah, Houston opened up about her experiences and described the night that Bobby Brown allegedly hit
her in the face. Houston said she had already been slowly moving out some of her furniture and
items at the time, alleging that they got into an argument and she told Brown she was leaving,
but he told her that she wasn't going to do that and struck her.
Houston explained that Brown was already in legal trouble due to "traffic violations." The police
became involved, but Houston was unwilling to attend court as she didn't want to see him go
to jail. Brown claims it was the drugs that were to blame, and claimed that he and Houston were
routinely getting high while nannies tended to their daughter, according to ABC News.
"The last few years of our marriage, it was terrible. Both of us, you know,
trying to be clean, and one of us trying to be clean and the other one don't wanna be clean."
Brown was charged with battery against Houston in 2003,
but he denied the allegations. He claims he was fighting Whitney's drug dealer and
accidentally cut her lip. In his A&E biography, Brown explained,
"There's a big misconception on me physically abusing Whitney. I never,
ever physically hit her — intentionally. Whitney got in the way. My hand went back, smacked her.
That was the worst time in my life." Legendary star Ozzy Osbourne cheated on
his wife and revealed he nearly killed her in a 60 Minutes interview. Ozzy told GQ,
"I've done some pretty outrageous things in my life. I regret cheating on my wife. I don't do
it anymore. I got my reality check and I'm lucky she didn't leave me. I'm not proud of that."
Ozzy was known for his intense on-stage performances,
but his boldest action unfolded off the stage, in 1989, in his own home.
Sharon recounted the story on the A&E special, Biography: The Nine Lives Of Ozzy Osbourne. She
recounted that they went out to dinner, and a few hours after returning home,
Ozzy approached her in an unusual state of mind. Sharon explained,
"He goes to a stage where he gets this look in his eyes where [...] shutters
were down on his eyes and I just couldn't get through to him."
Before attacking her, Sharon reports that Ozzy calmly uttered a haunting statement to her:
"And he just said, 'We've come to the decision that you've got to die.'"
The metal singer then dove onto his wife and began to strangle her. During the attack, Sharon managed
to locate a "panic button" on a nearby table. She pressed it, and police arrived to intervene.
Ozzy was charged with attempted murder. Sharon reflected that the event was among the most scared
she's been in her entire life, while Ozzy told 60 Minutes he has no recollection of the attack.
Adam Levine has dated a long list of women. His dating history reads like
a who's who in the world of supermodels. He was known to be such a playboy that when it
came time for him to settle down and marry model Behati Prinsloo, Levine stepped up to
the plate and contacted several of his exes to apologize for his womanizing ways, and for not
treating them properly during the course of their relationship, according to Us Weekly.
In September 2022, headlines erupted, revealing a cheating scandal involving Levine and several
other women. As this was all unfolding, Levine's wife was pregnant with their third child. It all
began when a woman named Sumner Stroh released a TikTok video, alleging she slept with Levine
within the past year, meaning this was both before and during Prinsloo's third
pregnancy. Strohl also claimed Levine asked her if he could name his child after her.
Many other women have come forward with cheating allegations against Levine while
he was married. Levine posted a story to his Instagram which acted as an apology for his
actions, though he denied he had an affair. According to Newsweek, the singer stated,
"I crossed the line during a regrettable period in my life. In certain instances it became
inappropriate; I have addressed that and taken proactive steps to remedy this with my family."
Disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly has been convicted of multiple sex crimes dating back to the '90s,
including racketeering and trafficking. In 2022,
he was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Many of the victims were his,
quote, "girlfriends," and some spoke out about their experiences.
Dominique Gardner was Kelly's girlfriend for nine years and says she had to live under very
strict rules while dating the singer. Gardner told The New Yorker that she needed Kelly's
approval to perform routine activities such as drinking and using the restroom.
She also lived under threats of violence, which were executed many times. Gardner
said disobeying R. Kelly led to punishment like spankings and beatings. She elaborated,
"He grabbed me and he pulled my hair out, and I had, like, patches torn from my hair."
Another of Kelly's victims, Azriel Clary, spoke to Fox Soul's Jason Lee about the
manipulation she experienced, and said other adults aided Kelly in ensuring she
remained under his control. Kelly's live-in girlfriend, Joycelyn Savage,
claimed she was urinated on by Kelly, told to call him "Master" or "Daddy," and
was choked until she blacked out. She says she was also forced to make sex videos.
Celebrity couple Chris Brown and Rihanna failed to attend the Grammys in 2009,
and the world quickly discovered it was because they were in a physical altercation
while making their way to the awards show. Images of Rihanna's bruised and battered face soon took
the internet by storm. Rihanna opened up about the experience during an interview with Oprah, saying,
"It happened to me in front of the world. It was embarrassing, it was humiliating, it was hurtful."
Rihanna spoke about how dramatically her entire life changed in that moment. She
recalled the media swarming to pick up every detail of the assault. She
described the myriad emotions she felt after being assaulted and said that
being broadcast on TV while processing the event made it even more difficult.
Brown described his recollection of the night's events during a Radio.com interview. He explained
that Rihanna grabbed him, and he proceeded to bite her in response. He elaborated,
"I remember she tried to kick me, I was like it's just her being upset, but then I really hit her,
with a closed fist, like I punched her. I busted her lip and when I saw it I was in shock."
Brown was charged with felony assault and making a criminal threat,
but that wasn't the end of his troubles. He had numerous other incidents over the years,
and in 2021, he was accused by another woman of a similar assault.
John Lennon's songs might preach about love and peace, but behind closed doors his personal
life reflected the opposite. His attitude toward women was evident in his interviews
and in the way he spoke about females as being subordinate, and he openly admitted to being
violent to the opposite sex. In an interview with Playboy, Lennon insisted that his violent
tendencies made way for the calls to love and peace that his career is founded on, saying,
"I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things she
loved. [...] I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women."
Lennon elaborated that he did not identify as a violent person,
and that he regretted how he treated women in his life in his younger years.
Lennon also cheated on the women he was with, according to a letter penned by his
former housekeeper, Dorothy Jartlett. She claimed that throughout his marriage to Cynthia Powell,
Lennon slept with other women and carelessly left drugs lying about. Jartlett said that
during a drunken rant, Lennon told Powell he had an affair with the Japanese artist Yoko Ono.
Even after their marriage, Lennon cheated on Ono with their assistant, May Pang.
Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson's whirlwind romance was solidified by a quickie marriage
on the beach just 96 hours after their very first date. They would go on to show the
world their raunchy attraction to one another with a series of sexually explicit videos and
public encounters. Their frisky and very public relationship quickly spiraled out of control in
1998 when Lee allegedly attacked Anderson while she was holding their 7-week old son,
Dylan. Anderson's interview with Biography detailed that she was allegedly kicked in
her backside and left with red marks on her body.
She filed for divorce, and Lee served six months in jail for spousal abuse. Anderson
discussed the abuse in her relationship in a blog post titled "Alcoholism is the Devil," writing,
"Nobody understands the lifetime of disappointment this man has brought
our family. Consistently the center of sadness, drama and confusion. Jealous
of his sons' talent and beauty from the day they were born. He is sick."
Lee was angered when Anderson discussed their relationship issues with Piers Morgan,
and reacted by blasting him on social media, writing,
"Think she'd find something new to discuss instead
of rehashing old s---, but I guess she has nothing else going on & needs attention."
Lee controversially signed off as "The abuser" in that message.
Elvis Presley's legendary status and iconic image are so powerful that
they often conceal the deeply concerning relationship he had with wife Priscilla
Presley. The two met at a party in 1959 when Priscilla was just 14 years old,
and Elvis was a full 10 years her senior. Priscilla recalled her relationship in
her memoir We Have Plenty of Time Little One, saying that she was a young virgin at the time,
and that Elvis often told her to wear clothing and makeup that would make her appear older.
It appears that Elvis was obsessed with young women, and was said to seek the company of very
young girls frequently. One of the young women he spent time with, Frances Forbes, told Daily Mail,
"He didn't pay any attention to me [when I was 13], but when I was 14,
he noticed me. Fourteen was a magical age with Elvis. It really was."
Priscilla revealed that Elvis refused to have intercourse until their wedding night, and she
became pregnant. After she gave birth, Elvis refused intimacy. During a 1985 interview with
Barbara Walters, Priscilla admitted Elvis played more of a father-role to her, and she described
what it was like to leave Elvis in pursuit of her own dreams. She recalled the stifling
relationship she shared with Elvis, and described having to succumb to his lifestyle in every way.
"I knew what he liked, what he didn't like. I knew his thoughts. I knew everything as far
as — you could possibly do when you live together at such a young age."
In her memoir, she described herself as being:
"Elvis's doll, his own living doll, to fashion as he pleased."
Marilyn Manson's goth image was designed for the stage, yet he seems to have lived
up to his scary persona. More than 16 women accused Manson of abuse, prompting a criminal
investigation. Manson's ex-girlfriend, Evan Rachel Wood, spoke out, saying,
"It started slow but escalated over time, including threats against my life,
severe gas-lighting and brainwashing, [and] waking
up to the man that claimed to love me raping what he believed to be my unconscious body."
Wood testified to the Judiciary House Committee, and elaborated that Manson
would also tie her up and subject her to physical and emotional torture to affirm her love for him.
Another woman, going by the name Jane Doe, sued Manson,
claiming he expressed controlling behavior, according to NBC News. She alleges Manson
denied her food and forced her to have sex. She claims Manson sexually assaulted her,
threatened to kill her, and bragged that he would, quote, "get away with it." Other women
claim they were locked in rooms and forced into sex acts, according to BuzzFeed News.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department concluded a 19-month-long investigation
into sexual assault allegations against Manson. As of December 2022,
criminal charges against the musician are still pending.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault,
help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse,
you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.