Cher revealed that her late ex-husband, Sonny Bono, financially exploited her during their marriage while she was rising to fame in Hollywood.
“He took all my money,” Cher admitted in a recent interview with The New York Times, published ahead of the release of her memoir, Cher: The Memoir. “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.”
Cher, you are WAY better than me but you were young and naive but chile the way I would have had a lawyer on speed dial, cause no mam! He left her with only clothes and material things but no cash!
Cher and Bono, iconic as the pop duo Sonny & Cher, were also known for their popular TV variety show. However, behind the scenes, Cher describes Bono as having a “parental” role that, at times, involved taking advantage of her financially. The two met when Cher was 16 and Bono was 27, a relationship Cher doesn’t consider a “#MeToo moment” because she “lied” to him about her age.
To escape living with her mother, Cher moved in with Bono in exchange for doing household chores. A few years later, they married in 1964 and had children. As their stardom grew, Cher says Sonny became emotionally abusive, adopting a “my way or the highway” attitude. She explains that Bono structured their business relationship so that she became his employee.
“To this day,” Cher reflected, “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.’”
The couple divorced in 1975, and Bono passed away in a skiing accident in 1998.
“I woke up one morning early, like 5 and I just thought, I’m not going to do this anymore. I’m going to leave him,” Cher shared, recalling her decision to leave Bono after revealing her desire to pursue a relationship with the band’s guitarist, which she eventually did. “I started to put into place a plan that was so dangerous that I don’t know how I had the nerve to do it.”
Cher only became financially literate later, during her relationship with film producer David Geffen.
“I didn’t know how to make a check out. I didn’t have a banking account,” Cher admitted. Despite this, she went on to carve out her own successful career, becoming a household name in her own right.
Cher: The Memoir was released on November 19 by HarperCollins. More photos and video clip inside…
