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Cher has opened up about feeling ‘trapped’ in her marriage to Sonny Bono, sharing that she once considered suicide.
The 78-year-old met the late musician in 1962 and they began working together, before things became romantic.
They tied the knot in an unofficial ceremony in 1964 and made things official a few years later, following the birth of their son, Chaz, in 1969.
It wasn’t to last and they began facing marital issues in the early 70s, eventually finalizing their divorce in 1975.
Unpacking their tumultuous romantic and professional relationship in the first part of her self-titled memoir, which hit the shelves today, the Believe singer spoke candidly about her former partner’s controlling nature and jealousy issues.
In the pages, she recalled wanting to take her own life in a Las Vegas hotel room in 1972, after feeling ‘defeated’.
‘There I was, 26-years-old and in what had become a loveless marriage,’ she penned of her relationship with Sonny, who died in 1998.
‘I stepped barefoot onto the balcony of our suite and stared 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, and each time I’d think about Chaz, about my mother, about my sister, about everybody and how things like this could make people who look up to me feel that it’s a viable situation and I would step back inside.’
The music icon’s outlook then shifted as she realized that she could just break off their marriage instead.
‘Then one morning everything changed,’ she penned. ‘That night between shows I went out on the balcony again and this time I thought, I don’t have to jump off, I can just leave him.’
Although their marriage was crumbling behind closed doors, the pair were still a team in the public eye and continued working together through the many rough patches.
Their careers were intertwined with both their efforts as a musical duo, and their stint on the small screen together.
They hosted the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour for three years until 1974, and then worked on the Sonny & Cher Show together in 1976.
‘The confusing thing was that, although I was deeply unhappy, I still loved Sonny, but I was no longer in love with him,’ she continued. ‘We were an amazing team on TV but at home things were falling apart.
‘He didn’t notice me anymore, so he didn’t see it.’
Following their tumultuous divorce, Cher went on to marry Gregg Allman in 1975, and welcomed son Elijah with the rocker – it wasn’t to last and they legally separated in 1979.
She also enjoyed high-profile romances with Gene Simmons, Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise, before going public with music executive Alexander ‘AE’ Edwards in 2022.
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English (US) ·