Ike Turner plans to marry in June

Jet, April 11, 1994

Musician-producer Ike Turner and his fiancee, singer-dancer Jeanette Bazzell, recently revealed their plans to marry on the "Geraldo" talk show.

Asked by host Geraldo Rivera when they plan to marry, Ms. Bazzell, 31, replied "June." To that Ike smiled, kissed her and held her hand as the audience applauded.

The happy couple have dated since 1988 after being introduced by Ike's son, Ike Jr. Ms. Bazzell told Jet during a recent interview, "Ike Jr. in |88 brought me and another girl to California to get a record deal. And while we were there he said |Do you want to meet my father?' And we were like |Yeah. We want to go and see him," and that's how I met him." Their romance started about "a month later," they said with a laugh (Jet, Sept. 27, 1993).

Ike Turner's turbulent marriage to superstar Tina Turner is detailed in the hit movie, What's Love Got To Do It. Ike, 62, is portrayed as a womanizer, drug addict and wife beater who repeatedly beats and verbally abuses Tina in the movie.

Ike said on the "Geraldo" show that the abuse portrayed in the movie "has been exaggerated."

Ike's fiancee says the Ike in the movie is not the Ike that she knows.

"The man that they portray in that movie is not the man that I'm with," she said on "Geraldo."

Ike, who recently completed a European tour, told Jet he's never struck Jeanette, who tours with him.

"I don't hit this girl," he said when the couple visited Johnson Publishing Company headquarters in Chicago.