Cher is set to discuss her ‘strange’ relationship with her late ex-husband Sonny Bono on The Graham Norton Show – including how she had ‘no money’ after being ripped off.
The American superstar singer, 78, joined Hollywood stars Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley and Josh Brolin, and singer songwriter Jalen Ngonda on the famous red couch, in an episode set to air on Friday night.
On her relationship with Sonny, she admitted: ‘We had a strange relationship and when I learned that he and his lawyer owned everything, and I was just an employee, I said I wanted to be 50/50 partners otherwise I would walk.
‘I didn’t want to leave, but I couldn’t be under that contract – I had no money. There is no bitterness towards Sonny. I was angry with him, but I just couldn’t be mad at him. We were friends until he died.’
Revealing she sought advice from Lucille Ball on how to leave, she added: ‘I didn’t know what to do and leaving was a hard thing for me. Lucy was on television and part of a couple, so I went to her, and she said, ‘f*** him, you’re the one with the talent!’
Talking about her autobiography Cher: The Memoir, Part One, and asked why she has written it now, the singer said, ‘I don’t know. There’s no reason for almost anything I do.’
Cher is set to discuss her ‘strange’ relationship with her ex-boyfriend Sonny Bono on The Graham Norton Show – including how she had ‘no money’ after being ripped off
On her relationship with Sonny, she admitted: ‘We had a strange relationship and when I learned that he and his lawyer owned everything, and I was just an employee (pictured in 1970)
Asked what it was like looking back she says, ‘It was okay and interesting, but I didn’t feel anything. I remembered it, I wanted to do it, and I did it.
‘Originally, I didn’t want to tell anyone anything, but then I thought I should either tell it or give back the money!’
When quizzed on if there will be another album, she revealed: ‘We are starting to work on the final album when I get rid of the book!
‘I did a good job on the Christmas one and I am praying I can get through it. You’re not meant to be singing at this age, and I hope that I will be able to do it and hit the notes.’
It comes after he revealed that she was respectful in her portrayal of Sonny in her new memoir.
‘I think he’d like it. I’m not sure he’d like all of it’ she tells this week’s issue of Stellar Magazine.
‘I tried not to paint him as a villain, because we stayed friends until the end. It was such a complicated relationship. I tried my best, but it doesn’t make sense sometimes’.
Cher didn’t hold back when she confessed she ‘doesn’t give a s***’ what the public thinks of her.
‘There have been times when people just didn’t like me. People weren’t interested, or they’d had enough or they thought I was over’ she said.
On her relationship with Sonny, she admitted: ‘We had a strange relationship and when I learned that he and his lawyer owned everything, and I was just an employee’
She added: ‘I didn’t want to leave, but I couldn’t be under that contract – I had no money’
It comes after he revealed that she was respectful in her portrayal of Sonny in her new memoir
‘If I cared about what people think more than I cared about doing what I wanted and who I was meant to be? You can’t take yourself seriously when you’re down, and you can’t take yourself seriously when you’re up’.
In the book, Cher writes that her marriage turned sour after Sony blamed her for his cheating because she refused to have sex with him whenever he wanted.
The legendary singer also describes her ex-husband as controlling and ‘Machiavellian.’
Bono took his manipulation so far that she was banned from seeing her friends, could only leave the house to go shopping and couldn’t even wear perfume because the singer-turned-politician didn’t like the smell.
‘There was something inside him that I could never understand, something that took him from being this fabulous funny guy to being someone who would take everything from me,’ Cher reflected in her book.
‘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.’
The first installment of the memoir by Cher, born Cheryl Sarkisian, is dominated with details on her relationship with Bono.
The pair met in 1962 in a coffee shop in Los Angeles, when she was introduced to one ‘Salvatore Philip Bono’.
Cher writes that he was ‘one of the most interesting men I’d ever seen’ and that she admired his ‘beautiful hands with long, tapered fingers’.
They hung out and became friends and when Cher told him she had been asked to move out of her apartment, Bono said she could move in with him if she cooked and cleaned the place.
‘Don’t worry, I’ve got twin beds,’ he told her. ‘And honestly, I don’t find you particularly attractive.’
Cher described how she was both ‘insulted and relieved’ to hear that.
The legendary singer also describes her ex-husband as controlling and ‘Machiavellian’ (Cher pictured in 2010)
The 11-year-age difference – she was just 16 and he was 27 – didn’t matter.
Nor did the fact that Bono was in the process of divorcing his first wife, as Cher thought he was the ‘coolest person I’d ever met’.
At that time, Cher was doing acting lessons but soon stopped to spend her days hanging out at the famed Gold Star Studios, where Bono worked as an assistant to the legendary producer Phil Spector.
According to Cher, their relationship was like ‘father and daughter’ and soon she realized that she was in love with him.
But even at these early stages, Bono was also controlling: Cher says he was ‘possessive’ and said that they never went out dancing, even though he knew she loved it.
Then it began to cross the line towards physical when Bono pushed her up against the wall with his shoulders and face clenched.
Cher told him that if he ever touched her like that again she would ‘leave your a**,’ in what turned out to be an empty threat.
Their child together, Chastity who later underwent gender reassignment in 2009 and became Chaz, was born in 1969.
Bringing a child into the world didn’t end the horror of the pair’s decaying relationship. After a tumultuous marriage, their divorce was finalized in 1975.
Bono was tragically killed in skiing accident in South Lake Tahoe, California, in 1998, at age 62.
The Graham Norton Show, will air on BBC One on Friday 29th November at 10.40pm. It’s also available on BBC iPlayer
