Cher was 16 when she met the 27-year-old record producer Sonny Bono. She was 18 when she married Bono — her first marriage, his second — and 19 when the couple released the smash 1965 single “I Got You, Babe.” Sonny and Cher went through a bitter divorce in 1975, and Bono went on to marry twice more and become a Congressman before dying in a 1998 skiing accident. Today, Cher remains plenty busy. She was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame last month, and she published the first of two planned memoirs today. Also, she’s still apparently fighting Bono’s widow over royalties.
Earlier this year, Cher announced plans to publish a two-part memoir. Her book Cher: The Memoir, Part One is out today, and it covers her early life and her marriage to Sonny Bono. Cher recently spoke to The New York Times about the book. On Bono, she says that their relationship “wasn’t a #MeToo moment because I lied to him… I’m not forgiving him because there were some things he did that were ridiculous.”
On their divorce, Cher says, “He took all my money. I just thought, We’re husband and wife. Half the things are his, half the things are mine. It didn’t occur to me that there was another way… To this day, I wish to God I could just ask, ‘Son, at what point, during what day, did you go, “Yeah, you know what? I’m going to take her money.”‘”
Earlier this year, Cher won a lawsuit against Sonny Bono’s widow Mary over her Cher of the royalties for the music that Sonny and Cher released as a duo. But now Rolling Stone reports that Cher’s legal battle with Mary Bono is still ongoing. On Monday, Bono’s lawyer argued in court that Cher’s 50% share of Sonny and Cher royalties should’ve ended in July 2022, when Cher sold her stake in their catalog to Irving Azoff‘s Iconic Artists Group: “She’s not entitled to a third party’s royalties. She’s not entitled to Iconic’s royalties. That’s an issue between Iconic and Mary Bono. She’s not entitled to the royalties that she doesn’t own.”
Cher’s lawyer reportedly responded that Mary Bono’s position doesn’t hold water: “Cher sought [the royalties]. She’s entitled to them. And she’s obligated to pay them over to Iconic. Under [opposing] counsel’s view, what happens to them? Mary Bono gets them? That makes absolutely no sense.”
Right now, Cher is on a promotional tour for her memoir. Last night, she was on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show, where she talked about how writing her book was “a bitch” and parodied the old Sonny And Cher variety show with Fallon. Also, she cussed on the Today show this morning, as Billboard reports. She was telling a story about calling Lucille Ball for advice on going through with a show-business divorce: “I said, ‘Lucy, I’m calling you because to my knowledge, there’s never been a situation besides mine except yours.’ And she said, ‘Fuck him. You’re the one with the talent!’” (The line got bleeped, obviously.) Watch her Tonight Show appearance below.
Cher: The Memoir, Part One is out now via Dey Street Books.
