Details In Tina Turner's Son Ronnie's Autopsy Report Are Devastating

The following article includes mentions of suicide.

Tina Turner lived through several tragic experiences — including the death of her son, Ronnie Turner. Tina died in May 2023, and Ronnie left the world only months prior, on December 8, 2022.

TMZ's initial reporting on Ronnie revealed that he passed out after experiencing shortness of breath. Attempts to sustain him via CPR were unsuccessful, and he passed away shortly after receiving emergency care. The report also noted that Ronnie, like Tina, had endured health problems for several years — especially toward the end of his life.

Although some autopsy reports take months, Ronnie Turner's cause of death was revealed shortly after he departed the world. On December 13, 2022, the Los Angeles Times reviewed his heartbreaking coroner's report, which listed his cause of death as complications of metastatic colon carcinoma. While colorectal cancer — an umbrella term including colon and rectal cancer — is already quite deadly, per the National Cancer Institute, it's especially difficult to treat once it migrates to other areas of a person's body. With that said, the coroner also noted that atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a disorder that impacts healthy blood flow, also ushered in his demise.

Although they had other children from prior relationships, Ronnie Turner was the only biological child Tina Turner and ex-husband Ike Turner shared. Upon his death, Tina took to Instagram to honor her son. "Ronnie, you left the world far too early," she wrote about the 62-year-old. "In sorrow I close my eyes and think of you, my beloved son." 

Sadly for Tina, Ronnie was the second child she outlived. Her oldest son, Craig Turner, died by suicide at age 59, in 2018. "I still don't know what took him to the edge," Tina Turner told BBC News. "I have no idea what pulled him down, except something that followed him with loneliness." In the same interview, Tina, who was a practicing Buddhist, revealed that, though she was going through her "sick period," she expected to live into her 90s. Ultimately, the singer died after an illness at 83. She had had a brush with intestinal cancer in 2016, and also had struggled with kidney failure and a stroke. 

"I think, for all of us who have faced serious illness, whether our own or of someone we love, it gives us a heightened appreciation of everyday life," Turner told AARP in May 2021. "Sometimes when we go through difficult experiences such as illnesses, it can feel like we are in a never-ending winter, and that spring will never come. But I know from experience that as long as we choose hope over despair, we can feel peace no matter what."

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