Cher Reveals the Extent of Sonny Bono's Financial Deceit Which Still Haunts Her Today

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Cher‘s life has been so epic that it’s requiring not one, but two parts to her memoir. The first book, Cher: The Memoir: Part One, is out on Tuesday, Nov. 19, and she is spilling the tea on her first marriage to Sonny Bono. 

While fans may think they know their Hollywood story, the 78-year-old icon is sharing a darker side to their nine-year marriage. She claims that there was major financial abuse during their relationship, and she didn’t even know it was happening until after their breakup. It took new boyfriend David Geffen to reveal how sinister Bono’s actions reportedly were. 

As a music executive, Geffen was accustomed to reading contracts and he took one look at Cher’s legal documents with her ex-husband to realize she wasn’t being compensated fairly for her company, Cher Enterprises. “I’d worked my whole life, yet apparently, I had nothing to show for it. I’d never for a second imagined that I needed to protect myself from Sonny, of all people, yet the contracts he’d had me sign were secretly designed to strip me of my income and the rights to my own career,” she wrote in an excerpt obtained by Page Six. 

The emotional damage from that aspect of their marriage is something that has been hard to reconcile, even after Bono’s death in a ski accident in 1998. “For years, I’ve racked my brain for how he could have done what he did, and I still can’t get over it to this day,” Cher admitted. 

Still, it was another Hollywood legend who set her straight about what she needed to do when Cher found out about the financial deception. Lucille Ball, who also had a controlling husband in Desi Arnaz, gave her the best advice. She told the “If I Could Turn Back Time” singer, “F––k him, you’re the one with the talent.” Cher then paid it forward by advising Tina Turner to do the same after dealing with her abusive spouse, Ike Turner. 

Cher’s contentious relationship with Bono eventually softened over the years as they reconciled in friendship. Her eulogy for her ex is considered legendary now because she had forgiven him over time. She credited him for creating “Sonny and Cher” and for being “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Ever Met.” It truly is a complicated legacy.

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