During a career spanning seven decades, Cher has become one of the world’s bestselling music artists. A Grammy and Billboard Icon Award winner with 100 million records sold worldwide, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.
But there’s so much more to the artist born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946 in small-town El Centro, California.
In Cher: The Memoir, Part One (out now), the legend gets candid about her rise to fame, her tempestuous relationship with husband and singing partner Sonny Bono and his many betrayals.
Breaking into the UK
On the advice of Mick Jagger, Sonny and Cher headed to the UK in August 1965 with big ambitions. While their plan to launch their career there got off to a humiliating start – denied entry to the London Hilton by a desk clerk who took exception to their hippie clothing – Cher believes the experience launched them internationally thanks to the two reporters waiting when they walked out.
“‘Sonny, Cher, did the Hilton just kick you out?’ they asked. ‘Was it because of how you look?’” she recalled. “Photos of us being ejected from the Hilton were on the cover of the evening newspapers and everyone wanted first crack at us for interviews on their TV and radio shows.”
Inevitably, some questioned whether the whole thing had been set up, though Cher insisted the clerk wasn’t that good an actor.
“Genuine or not, it worked,” she wrote. “Within days we were on Top of the Pops, and ‘I Got You Babe’ soared to the top of the British charts and remained there for a fortnight.”
Sonny’s Betrayals
A teenager during their early years together, Cher was being controlled by Sonny. By her own admission, she “could only do what he wanted to do”. The couple welcomed their only child, Chastity, who now goes by Chaz, in March 1969. But when mother and child arrived home, Cher suffered a near-fatal haemorrhage, passing out on the floor.
“Looking back, I wonder where the hell he went on the night I came home with our baby,” she reflected. After Sonny mismanaged their money, the pair were forced to embark on the “supper-club circuit” in hotel and casino theatres. But by August 1971, they were back on top when CBS show The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour debuted. Leaving Sonny in October 1972, Cher got her first taste of independence – and relished it. By Christmas 1973, she’d begun dating music titan David Geffen – and Sonny wasn’t happy.
“David was the most loving boyfriend I’d ever had, and he took great care of me, because that’s who he was,” Cher wrote.
Getting Geffen to look over her CBS contract, it became clear Cher had signed her life away to Sonny, who’d spent all her money. Reluctantly, she “sacrificed the show to save myself”.
Her wild night with John Lennon
Celebrity encounters became the norm for the star, but one night in 1974 was particularly memorable. Bumping into The Beatles legend John Lennon and his singer pal Harry Nilsson at a restaurant, Cher agreed to take them to the Playboy Mansion’s movie night. However, they were far more drunk than she’d realised.
As their inebriated antics escalated and Hugh Hefner’s patience wore thin, she ejected them from the theatre. Tracking them down to the estate’s infamous grotto, she discovered them nude!
“I was trying not to laugh, but it was impossible not to as they threatened to wander around the mansion naked,” she recalled. “It took me ages to get them back in their clothes.”
Her bad boy era
In 1975, Cher started dating The Allman Brothers rocker Gregory Allman – a notorious heroin addict. With a baby on the way, they eloped to Vegas that June. Nine days later, both filed for divorce. When a routine pregnancy check-up uncovered ovarian cysts, a difficult decision had to be made. Meanwhile, Allman checked into rehab and told reporters their divorce was a misunderstanding. He wanted a second chance – and Cher gave him one.
As the ratings of her self-titled TV show declined, Cher – pregnant again – turned to ex-husband Sonny to revive their variety program. “For me to be coming back to star in a show with my ex-husband, while impregnated by my new husband, who was also a heroin addict and had divorced me once and was otherwise out of my life … nothing like that had ever happened in the history of the universe,” she wrote. Sonny worked his magic and The Sonny & Cher Show began in early 1976 to record ratings.
Cher: The Memoir, Part One by Cher is out now
