Cher reveals she contemplated suicide several times during her marriage to Sonny

Cher revealed that she considered suicide multiple times during her marriage to Sonny Bono, due to the exhaustion and lack of love she felt, according to her new memoir.

‘Desperate’ Cher considered suicide numerous times during tumultuous Sonny Bono marriage https://t.co/ZV0g46QpET pic.twitter.com/vbfVlclzIk

— Page Six (@PageSix) November 19, 2024

In “Cher: The Memoir, Part One,” the singer and actress recalls how Sonny controlled every aspect of her life at the height of their fame with “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour,” which aired on CBS from 1971 to 1974.

“I was dizzy from loneliness,” writes the 78-year-old star about one night in 1972 when she thought about ending her life. “I saw how easy it would be to fall off the edge and just disappear.”

In fact, she considered it “five or six times.”

Cher writes that Sonny was so jealous that he wouldn’t even allow her to wear perfume or attend parties. He also controlled every part of their career and finances to the point where, despite being a massive star with a successful TV show and chart-topping hits like “I Got You Babe,” she didn’t even have her own bank account.

In October 1972, the couple, who had a young child, filmed two episodes of their show and then flew to Las Vegas to perform two nightly concerts at the Sahara Hotel.

The legendary pop star, whose weight had dropped to 44 kg, wanted to ask Sonny if she could go with their band to hear live music, “even though he never listened to new music and wouldn’t let me play it at home,” she writes.

The 26-year-old Cher walked in while Sonny was in a business meeting and overheard him discussing how much money they had made. She said, “Well, let’s go to Europe,” but Sonny furrowed his brow and replied, “Why? You can’t make money in Europe.”

When she mentioned wanting a vacation, her husband “turned his gaze and said, ‘Cher, come on.'”

He then told her he had signed a new contract for them to perform in Las Vegas every summer for “God knows how many years.”

“Defeated” by the idea of how these constant live performances were affecting her and their child, Cher wrote that she went “barefoot onto the balcony of our suite and looked down…”

“For a few crazy minutes, I couldn’t imagine any other option. I did this five or six times, and each time I thought of [her child] Chaz, my mother, my sister, everyone, and how things like this can make the people who admire me feel like it’s a viable situation, and then I went back inside.”

After repeating this act one night between performances, Cher had an epiphany: “I don’t need to jump, I can just leave him.”

Even then, Sonny still controlled her life, as they made an arrangement where she would live with him during the week, continue working with him, and have weekends to herself at their Malibu beach house. Despite earning her own money, she was only allowed a $5,000 monthly allowance.

“I didn’t care about any of that. I was free, and I had my own bedroom,” Cher writes.

The couple eventually divorced in 1975, and she remarried Gregg Allman the same year. They separated four years later, partly due to his drug addiction.

The post Cher reveals she contemplated suicide several times during her marriage to Sonny appeared first on ProtoThema English.