Cher Revealed She Was 'Madly in Love' With This A-List Actor Who Broke Her Heart

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Cher is leaving no stone unturned when it comes to her love life in her new memoir, Cher: The Memoir: Part One. She visited SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show on Wednesday, Nov. 20 to spill the tea about one particular A-list actor who broke her heart years ago. 

Howard Stern always asks the questions other interviewers are afraid to ask, but he was curious if her dates “expect fabulous sex because you’re Cher.” The 78-year-old singer wasn’t shy about her response, quipping, “Yes — and they get it. You can tell by the reaction.”

That’s when Stern dug a bit deeper into her relationships over the years, asking, “Who would ever leave you?”

“Few men,” she revealed. “Look, I was madly in love with Val Kilmer, and he left … because sometimes you’re only meant to stay with someone for so long. Val was really young.”

There was a 14-year age gap between the couple, but Cher looks back fondly at the relationship after meeting the Top Gun actor at one of her birthday parties in the ’80s. “We called ourselves Sid and Ethel,” she told People in 2021. “Val didn’t want to yell ‘Cher, and I didn’t want to yell ‘Val.’ We also called ourselves Valus Maximus and Cherus Reprimandus. It was just kind of who I was in the household. Of course, he was Maximus, come on.” 

Their romance lasted from 1982 to 1984, but their friendship remained. When Kilmer, now 64, was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015, she stepped in with a lifeline by allowing him to live in her guest house. Kilmer revealed what a hero she was at the hardest time in his life in his 2020 memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry.

“One night I suddenly awoke vomiting blood that covered the bed like a scene out of The Godfather. I prayed immediately, then called 911. Then, alerted my hostess. Cher stepped in and stepped up,” he wrote. “And yet even in my grave condition, I saw her scanning the paramedic, who was Gregory Peck drop-dead handsome. Only in Hollywood, right?”

While their relationship wasn’t meant to be, Cher proved why she’s still in Kilmer’s life — they are friends until the end.

Before you go, click here to see celebrity exes who will always be friends.