Music icon Cher detailed her rocky relationship with Sonny Bono and how it drove her to thoughts of suicide multiple times. The “Believe” singer admitted Bono thought about “throwing” her off a balcony.
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
On her rise to fame, music icon Cher reached rock bottom during her “loveless marriage” to Sonny Bono.
The “Believe” singer confessed her ex-husband Bono had thoughts of murdering her during their tumultuous relationship in her new book, “Cher: The Memoir, Part One,” released today.
After struggling in the marriage, Cher admitted to Bono that she was interested in sleeping with their guitarist, Bill. She wrote that her music duo partner and then-husband did not take the news well.
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“You know, after you went off with Bill that night at the Sahara [hotel], I seriously thought about throwing you off our balcony,” she recalled him saying.
Cher added she thought her ex-husband’s confession was “crazy.”
She wrote that he added, “I figured I’d plead insanity like Spade Cooley and get seven years in jail before they released me. Then I’d get a book deal and my own show.”
She replied, “Oh, you did, did you? Well, there would have been no need to push me because I was gonna jump!”
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While she claimed that was the “darkest moment” of their marriage, Cher wrote that she did not think Bono would actually push her off the balcony, but she was “sure it crossed his mind.”
At that moment, they could not help but laugh, Cher penned in her memoir.
Meanwhile, Cher reflected on how their rocky relationship made the pop singer consider suicide multiple times.
“There I was, twenty-six years old and in what had become a loveless marriage… he just lost interest.”
“I stepped barefoot onto the balcony of our suite and stared down. I was dizzy with loneliness. I saw how easy it would be to step over the edge and simply disappear. For a few crazy minutes I couldn’t imagine any other option,” she wrote.
Cher said her suicidal ideations occurred “five or six times.”
What drew Cher off the ledge was the vulnerable thought of how it would deeply impact her family if she were to jump to her death.
“… each time I think… about my mother, about my sister, about everybody and how things like this could make people who look up to me feel that it’s a viable solution, and I would step back inside.”
The “If I Could Turn Back Time” singer then came to another solution to her relationship with Bono.
“I don’t have to jump off, I can just leave him.”
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Cher wrote that she reached out to her friend Lucille Ball, who also dealt with marital struggles with her husband and co-star Desi Arnaz.
“I told her, ‘Lucy, I want to leave Sonny and you’re the only one I know that’s ever been in this same situation. What should I do?’” Cher remembered.
“She told me, ‘F— him, you’re the one with the talent.’”
Bono, whose real name was Salvatore Bono, and Cher married in 1967 and skyrocketed to success as a musical duo. The two welcomed their only child, Chaz Bono, in 1969.
In Cher’s memoir, she detailed how Bono controlled every aspect of her life and took all her money at the height of their fame on “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”
After nine years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1975. In 1998, Bono died in a skiing accident.
