Ike Turner wrote two handwritten wills and revoked one; a judge found he died with no valid will

Less than a week after Ike Turner died, his ex-wife Audrey Madison Turner filed a handwritten will he wrote in October 2007 naming her a beneficiary. They had married in October 2006; he filed for divorce two months later. His friend and sometime lawyer James Clayton produced a different handwritten will from 2001 leaving everything to Clayton, with instructions to consult Turner's daughter Twanna Melby on dividing it. Turner's children, at least four and possibly six, said he died without a valid will. Superior Court Judge Richard Cline held a trial in north San Diego County. In a 16-page tentative ruling in October 2009 he found the 2001 will valid but revoked by the October 2007 will. Turner had then written a document revoking the 2007 will a month later. That did not revive the 2001 will. Turner therefore died intestate, and his adult children were his heirs under state law. Cline noted "a potential of substantial value" in Turner's rights to about 4,000 songs. The ruling was later reported as final^†. In 2026 his children hold the estate^†.