Bet You Didn’t Know: Secrets Behind the Making of “What’s Love Got to Do With It”

Did that really happen?

Two of the most memorable scenes in the movie, the rape scene and the cake scene are partially or completely fabricated. As for the rape scene, sources have at least four different versions of the way it did or didn’t happen.

1. Ike and Tina acknowledged that the rape never happened.
2. Ike is the only one who’s denied that the rape.
3. Others claim that Tina said Ike forced her to have sex against her will, but back in the day rape within the context of a marriage wasn’t legally punishable.
4. Then there are those that claim Tina said that having sex with Ike was like rape.

Being that it’s a sensitive subject, Ike is dead and Tina probably never wants to talk about him again, we’ll probably never know the truth about that one.

But the cake scene, isn’t true. He never pushed cake in her face. There was an incident where someone brought cake to their car at a drive in restaurant, though she hadn’t ordered it, and Ike told her she was going to eat it anyway. But there was no big production of him slamming it in her face, like the film portrayed.