Cher fumes Sonny Bono 'took all my money' when they were married

Pop icon Cher has revealed how her ex-husband, Sonny Bono, ripped her off financially during their time together as she rose to fame

Pop icon Cher has revealed how her ex-husband, Sonny Bono, ripped her off financially during their time together as she rose to fame.

Speaking as she released her new memoir, the singer, 78, shared that she initially believed their money was shared. “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,” she said. But then she added: “He took all my money.”

Best known for their hit songs and television show The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, the pair’s public image masked a complex relationship. Behind the scenes, the Believe hitmaker says, Bono took on a “parent” role, controlling both her finances and their business arrangements.

The two met when Cher was 16 and he was 27. She said she wouldn’t label it a “#MeToo moment” but admits she lied about her age at the time. Cher recalled moving in with Bono to avoid returning to her mother’s home, initially offering to cook and clean in exchange for a place to stay.

The two married in 1964, had children and became a household name. But Cher describes Bono’s behaviour as increasingly controlling as they grew in fame. He allegedly structured their money to make Cher his employee, limiting her financial independence. “To this day,” she said, “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 died in a skiing accident in 1998. “I woke up one morning — early, like five — and I just thought, I’m not going to do this anymore. I’m going to leave him,” Cher explained, adding that she told her husband that she wanted to pursue a relationship with the group’s guitarist and 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.”

Speaking to the New York Times, Cher recounted deciding to leave him after years of his “my way or the highway” mentality. She eventually started a new relationship with their guitarist, which helped her break away. It was only through her later relationship with producer David Geffen that she learned basic money skills, eventually establishing herself independently. “I didn’t know how to make a check out. I didn’t have a banking account,” she admitted.

Cher: The Memoir by HarperCollins is now out on sale.