Ahead of her memoir, Cher spoke to the New York Times about the process of the exhausting biography and about her life. In the interview, Cher gets into the nitty and gritty of her controlling relationship with Sonny Bono.
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The couple married in 1964 and divorced in 1975 when Cher woke up one day and thought "I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm going to leave him." And after all he did, I'm not surprised.
Their problems grew as Bono became more famous. "Fame changed Bono," the outlet abridges. In the earlier years of their relationship, it seemed everything was going well. He championed her and they became an incredible pair, Bonny & Cher.
As they became more famous, it became "my way or the highway," with him, says Cher. He became controlling in every aspect of her life.
He refused to let her socialize with band members, he controlled her finances (by taking all of it), and he stopped them from attending dinners, concerts, or movies. Bono became incredibly possessive of Cher as he became increasingly paranoid she'd leave her.
Sonny Bono Stole Cher's Money And Controller Her Life
As he grew more and more insecure about their relationship, he became "more erratic," the outlet describes Cher's words.
He burned her tennis clothes in their backyard and even blamed Cher for his own infidelity.
Bono also arranged her finances. She believed that they owned everything equally, as partners usually do. "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," Cher said.
"He took all my money."
He established Cher Enterprises, although made himself the boss and Cher as an underpaid employee. She wasn't immediately aware of this, which goes to show how much he lied, manipulated, and controllerher.
Cher said, "To this day, 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.'"
After years of being robbed, emotionally abused, and controlled, Cher finally woke up one morning and decided she was done with it. While ending their relationship, Cher opens up about how she told Bono she wanted to sleep with the guitarist. True to her word, she did.
They split in 1975. Years later, in 1998, Sonny Bono died in a skiing accident.
