Cher is a multi-hyphenate star and her brightness hasn't faded in her lengthy six-decade career.
The singer, actress and overall entertainer has led a life filled of rubbing shoulders with Hollywood figures from a young age. But before her fame, Cher, who was raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania did not have the glamorous life she has worked hard to maintain.
The recent inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tells her life story in her own words. Released on Tuesday, Nov. 19, "Cher: The Memoir, Part 1" peels the layers back on one of entertainment's most fascinating talents. It also highlights the artist’s dynamic life and complicated relationship with her late ex-husband Sonny Bono. Eventually, it shaped Cher into the powerhouse woman she is.
Here are some of the most shocking and interesting revelations from "Cher: The Memoir Part One":
Born to actress and singer Georgia Holt – who played small parts in shows like "I Love Lucy" – and Johnnie Sarkisian – who is described as a grifter and a heroin addict – Cher did not have an easy childhood. And she almost didn't have one either
After Holt became pregnant with Cher, only three months after her marriage to Sarkisian, her mother took her to get an abortion. The procedure would have been highly illegal and dangerous if Holt had followed through with it, but at the last minute, she refused.
Cher wrote, "It was her body, her life and her choice . . . [but] thank God she got off that table, though, or I wouldn’t be here to write these pages.”
01 Cher may not have existed at all
Following Cher's birth, Holt struggled financially as a waitress at an all-night diner. The New York Times revealed that when Cher was an infant, out of desperation her mother abandoned her at a children's home in Scranton, Pennsylvania and skipped town. Holt paid the orphanage $4.50 a week for Cher's care.
It was a difficult period for Holt although she did visit weekly. She finally reclaimed her daughter from the orphanage as early as she could, around the time that Cher was able to walk. Cher said it wasn't until Holt passed that she cried when recalling this time in their lives.
02 Cher was left in an orphanage as an infant
During her chaotic childhood, Cher rubbed shoulders with Hollywood royalty and their families. As a child, Cher hung out with the children of Dean Martin, who were friends with a neighbor family across the street from Cher's home. Cher describes how her friends took her over to see if that family's daughter, who was named Liza, was free to play.
03 Cher grew up knowing Liza Minnelli and the children of Dean Martin
“We did as we were told, and when we sat on the front steps Liza spontaneously burst into song with ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’ I remember thinking that was strange, as I’d never been around a kid who just burst into song like that, even though she was pretty darn good,” Cher wrote. “It was only later that I realized she was Liza Minnelli and that the woman on the stairs was [Liza Minelli's mother and star] Judy Garland . Now I realize she probably wasn’t drinking juice.”
Just like every other young girl in the '50s, Cher was obsessed with Elvis Presley. Watching Presley on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1956, Cher recalled, "I felt as if he was singing only to me. I wanted to jump right into the TV and be Elvis."
Several years later, Holt was able to get two tickets for them to see Presley perform at Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Cher wrote, "The stage was dark, but when the spotlights hit him, Elvis was there and he was magic. There was a roar from the crowd that was like nothing I had ever heard. An explosion of flashbulbs went off. I only wished I'd brought our little Kodak Brownie. Elvis was standing there in his famous gold suit, which was shimmering and changing color in the spotlights.
"It was the most exciting experience I'd ever had because I knew that I wanted to be on that stage in the spotlight one day too," she said.
04 Cher's first concert she attended was for Elvis Presley
As a teenager, Cher borrowed her stepfather's car when a man in a sports car cut her off, almost causing her to collide with his vehicle. When she got out of her car to talk to the man, she realized it was actor Warren Beatty, who at that point was already known for his Broadway turn in "A Loss of Roses" and on TV for "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." She claimed he said she was “so drop-dead gorgeous” and then invited her to his home.
“He showed me inside, fixed us some cheese and crackers, then leaned in and kissed me,” Cher wrote. “The two of us went swimming, with me in Natalie Wood’s bathing suit, and we had a great time.”
Cher didn't get home until 4 a.m., getting in trouble for violating her curfew. But the next day when Beatty called her to ask him for dinner and a swim, she told him she was grounded. He talked to her mother, who Cher said "melted."
“Why didn’t you tell me you were with Warren Beatty?” her mother asked.
05 At 15, Cher dated Warren Beatty
Sonny and Cher met in a coffee shop, but at the time she lied about her age. After they became friends, Cher no longer wanted to live with her mother. So Bono offered her a place to live in exchange for cooking and cleaning.
“In my mind, I was thinking, Yeah, OK, this old line,” Cher wrote. “But I must have had a look on my face because he shook his head and laughed. ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got twin beds,’ he said. With a grin he added, ‘And honestly, I don’t find you particularly attractive.’”
They weren't officially married until 1969 but soon after they'd have a child and then starred in "The Sonny & Cher Show" together.
In her New York Times interview, Cher explained, “It 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.”
06 When Cher was 16 she met 27-year-old Sonny Bono in a coffee shop
Cher says that after their fame skyrocketed, Bono became controlling. By 1972, at just 26, she felt "trapped" in a "loveless marriage" and was almost driven to harm herself.
She wrote in her memoir, she stepped onto her hotel balcony in Las Vegas and looked down.
"I was dizzy with loneliness. I saw how easy it would be to step over the edge and simply disappear. For a few crazy minutes I couldn't imagine any other option. I did this five or six times," she said.
But thinking about her loved ones stopped Cher. She said, "Things like this could make people who look up to me feel that it’s a viable solution."
07 Cher almost jumped off a balcony because of her failing marriage
An empowered Cher realized: "I don't have to jump off. I can just leave him."
The couple separated following the incident and divorced in 1975. Cher said, “One day he came into the kitchen at my house and said, ‘Cher, I want to apologize. I realized that I hurt you in so many ways, and I was wrong.' That went a long way for me.”
However, in her interview with the Times, she also said that she wrestles with her perception of her ex-husband because she claims he stole from her and is still fighting to earn royalties for her work he owned.
She revealed, "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.”'”
The singer and actress left her readers a note, discussing Chaz Bono, her son with her late ex-husband. Chaz is transgender and announced his transition in 2009.
"In this memoir, I refer to my son Chaz as Chas, the name he went by during the years covered in this book," she said. "Chaz has granted his blessing for this usage. In the next volume, at the appropriate point, I will refer to my son as Chaz."
