Cher
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The Memoir
published: 1 /
2 /
2025
In 'Raging Pages' guest reviewer Nick Dent-Robinson enjoys Cher’s memoir which tells of her difficult upbringing and marriage to and early success with Sonny Bono.
Article
Cher, now 78, is modestly billed in some of the lavish publicity for her new memoir as “a total global icon” - but her story is pretty impressive.
She was born in 1946 as Cheryl Sarkissan and her childhood was challenging. Cher's father was from a family of Armenian immigrants and he was a heroin addict with “a penchant for larceny and a shaky relationship with employment”. Her mother was an attractive model and would-be actress who married seven or eight times (“It's hard to remember,” says Cher) in the desperate pursuit of happiness, career goals and financial security and stability for her two daughters.
As her mother alternated between waitressing in Los Angeles and walk-on parts in TV commercials, Cher got to know the uglier fringes of showbusiness at a very young age. Misery was intermingled with glamour. Childhood friends included (fleetingly) Liza Minnelli who was a similar age and who impressed Cher hugely with her precocious powerful singing skills. Cher learned to love actresses' costumes, make-up, perfume and theatrical mannerisms plus she enjoyed dance classes, wanting to eventually star in major musicals like ‘West Side Story’ or be like Liz Taylor's Cleopatra or to sing like Eartha Kitt. At a very young age she was gently propositioned by Telly Savalas and she dated Warren Beatty briefly. On the last occasion he'd invited Cher to dinner Cher declined, saying she now had a new boyfriend, Sonny Bono. Beatty simply responded, “Well, how about lunch, then?” - which Cher found both amusing and endearing! She and Warren Beatty have remained friends over the many decades since.
By 1963, “Sonny had become everything to me”, Cher says and they were married quite soon after. Their first single ‘I've Got You Babe’ was an instant hit in the UK and knocked the Beatles off the top chart spot. International fame followed and later their TV series ‘The Sonny And Cher Comedy Hour’ was also a massive award-winning hit. But, behind the scenes, Sonny could be “erratic and moody”. He controlled his wife's money, dictated what she could wear and denied access to her friends. “I was frightened and felt completely trapped”, Cher recalls. Eventually, with the help of top Hollywood lawyers, Cher broke free. “I left him for another woman. - Me!”, Cher tells us.
This memoir is only Part 1 of Cher's life story. Part 2 - covering her later success as an award-winning film actress and her incredible on-going musical career - is promised for later this year.
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