Tina Turner posts rare new photo ahead of documentary, following years of ill health

Tina Turner via her Instagram this week. Photo / Tinaturner via Instagram

Tina Turner has appeared in a rare new image as the legendary singer prepares to enter the next chapter of her life completely out of the spotlight.

The 81-year-old, who has already largely retreated from public life over the past decade, posted a photo of herself on Instagram as she prepares for the global release of her new documentary film, Tina.

The photo is one of the first times fans have seen a recent snapshot of Turner, who has been plagued by ill health in recent years including a stroke, cancer and a kidney transplant, in more than a year.

She'd earlier posted a special video message to fans for her 80th birthday in November 2019, declaring: "I look great, I feel great."

To celebrate turning 80 years old, Tina has recorded a special birthday video message just for her fans.💜 #Tina80 pic.twitter.com/dUFEUawQ7r

— TinaTurner (@LoveTinaTurner) November 26, 2019

Tina, an HBO feature-length documentary, was filmed in 2019, and shows Turner revisiting her early years which were fraught with struggle and domestic abuse, before her career dreams finally came true as a middle-aged woman.

The film also serves as Turner's final farewell to fans, with the Queen of Rock 'n Roll wanting to enter the final phase of her life in private.

Tina Turner on her 80th birthday in November 2019. Photo / Twitter

Looking back, Turner reflects in the doco: "It wasn't a good life. The good did not balance the bad.

"I had an abusive life, there's no other way to tell the story. It's a reality. It's a truth. That's what you've got, so you have to accept it."

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A post shared by Tina Turner (@tinaturner)

In the documentary, Turner is seen for the first time talking with the man who finally brought her happiness, her second husband, Erwin Bach.

The details of Turner's life have been chronicled before in her 1986 autobiography, I, Tina, and in the 1993 biopic What's Love Got To Do With It? with Angela Bassett as Turner.

But this is the first time Turner has been willing to discuss it in depth on camera.

The documentary airs in the US on Sunday March 28.