Cher Says She Once Considered Jumping off a Balcony When She Felt ‘Trapped’ in ‘Loveless Marriage’ to Sonny Bono

Cher reflects on her complicated relationship with Sonny Bono.

In his new book Cher: A Memoir, Part 1which comes out on Tuesday, November 19, the pop legend talks about the demise of their marriage.

Cher and Bono were 16 and 27 respectively when they met. The couple rose to fame with their hit song “I Got You Babe” before finding success with their variety show Sonny & Cher comedy hour. Although they had an unofficial wedding in 1964, they were actually married in 1969. Despite their productive professional partnership, Cher writes that Bono was controlling—and she began to feel “trapped” in what she calls a “loveless marriage.”

In 1972, Cher was 26 years old and in Las Vegas to work with the colorful Bono when she reached her shooting point, stepped onto a hotel balcony and looked down.

“Loneliness made my head spin. I saw how easy it is to cross the edge and simply disappear,” writes Cher (78). “For a few crazy minutes I couldn’t think of any other option. I did this five or six times.”

Cher says meeting Sonny Bono ‘wasn’t love at first sight’ – but it was something she’d ‘never felt before’

Cher.

Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty

However, the thought of her loved ones – her then-toddler Chaz, her mother Georgia and her sister Georganne – stopped Cher, who writes: “Things like this might make people who look up to me feel like it’s a viable solution.”

She had an epiphany in Las Vegas: “I don’t have to jump. I can just leave it.”

Cher and Bono soon parted quietly. They filed for divorce by 1974, before finalizing their contentious divorce in 1975 after a bitter custody battle over Chaz. Over the years, they remained friendly co-parents and even reunited in business Show Sonny & Cher.

In 2023, Cher addressed their relationship, telling PEOPLE that it “royally pissed me off and hurt me” but that they had found peace.

“One day he came into the kitchen of my house and said, ‘Cher, I want to apologize. I realized that I hurt you in so many ways, and I was wrong,'” she said of Bono, who died in 1998. “That went a long way for me.”

Cher Announces Book Tour for Upcoming Memoir with Stops in New York, London, San Francisco and More (Exclusive)

Book cover of ‘Cher: The Memoir: Part 1’.

HarperCollins

Cher unveiled her two-part memoir in July. At the time, it was teased that the first installment would follow “her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono — and explores the very complicated relationship that made them world famous but ultimately drove them apart.”

During the performance at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in November 2023 Cher said her life was “too big for just one book”.

On November 20, Cher will embark on a book tour starting in New York. It will then make stops in Englewood, NJ; London; Beverly Hills, California; and San Francisco.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Line by dialing 988, texting “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Line at 741741 or going to 988lifeline.org.

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Source: HIS Education