Topline
Cher released the first installment of a planned two-part memoir Tuesday, “Cher: The Memoir, Part One,” spanning roughly the first half of the 78-year-old entertainer’s life, with anecdotes about a marriage to Sonny Bono she called “loveless” that led her to consider suicide at the height of their television fame in the 1970s.
Key Facts
Cher opened up about her marriage to Sonny Bono, her husband from 1964 to 1975 and her “Sonny & Cher Show” co-star, NBC’s “Today” show reported, stating she felt “trapped” in the tumultuous relationship and considered jumping off their balcony “five or six times” in 1972, but stopped herself after thinking about her family and her fans that looked up to her.
The singer wrote Bono “just started not to care about me,” CNN reported, prompting her to pursue an affair with her guitarist, Bill Hamm, after which Bono told her he “seriously thought about throwing you off our balcony,” though Cher writes she doesn’t think he actually would have done it.
Cher told Hoda Kotb on “Today” Tuesday morning she describes seeking relationship advice from actress Lucille Ball in her memoir, because Ball had similarly left her ex-husband and television co-star Desi Arnaz, whom Cher says told her: “F*ck him, you’re the one with talent.”
After receiving advice from Ball, Cher says she later gave similar advice to singer Tina Turner, who asked her for makeup to cover a bruise inflicted by her abusive ex-husband Ike Turner while making an appearance on her “Cher” variety show in the 1970s, reportedly writing: “I looked at her and told her, ‘I just walked out and kept going.’”
Cher said she once confronted Phil Spector—a producer whom she worked for as a backup singer in the 1960s, who was sentenced to prison decades later for shooting and killing actress Lana Clarkson—because he had released a demo she recorded behind her back, alleging he “picked up a revolver” during their confrontation to intimidate her.
Cher reportedly writes in the memoir she refers to her transgender son, Chaz Bono, as “Chas”—which she says is “the name he went by during the years covered in this book,” as the book stops decades before Bono publicly came out, stating her son gave her his blessing to do so.
Big Number
432. That’s how many pages the first part of Cher’s memoir spans, with a second part due out next year, though Cher told USA Today she hasn’t “even thought about part two.”
Key Background
Cher and publisher HarperCollins announced in July she would release her memoir in two parts, beginning with the first part in November, stating she has “a life too immense for only one book.” She told the New York Times the book “exhausted me,” and she stated she has not yet read the memoir herself. Much of Cher’s acting career—including her Oscar-winning role in “Moonstruck,” which premiered in 1987—as well as the latter half of her music career are not covered in the memoir’s first part. Cher’s decades-long, award-winning career (including a Grammy for “Believe” and Emmy for a concert film) has already been documented in the Tony-winning Broadway musical, “The Cher Show,” and a biopic has been in the works at Universal Pictures since 2021, though no casting announcement has been made.
Tangent
Cher is the latest singer to release a memoir, and her two-part book may rival the length of Barbra Streisand’s nearly thousand-page “My Name is Barbra,” which was released last year. Lisa Marie Presley’s “From Here to the Great Unknown,” co-authored by Presley and her daughter Riley Keough, was released last month, nearly two years after the singer’s death. Britney Spears also released her memoir “The Woman In Me” last year, which was highly anticipated following the end of her controversial conservatorship, and is set to receive a film adaptation by Universal Pictures and director Jon M. Chu.
Cher Can, and Does, Turn Back Time (New York Times)
Which Celebrity Memoir Sold The Most In 2023—And Which Didn’t (Forbes)
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