Sonny and Cher scored transatlantic success with I Got You Babe in 1965 (Image: Bettmann Archive)
Cher has revealed how her former husband and singing partner Sonny Bono wrote her out of their multi-million dollar business dealings – treating her like an employee at the height of her seventies success – without her knowledge.
As the pop duo became increasingly successful, a friend urged her to read her business contract with TV station CBS who has commissioned the Sonny & Cher Show.
“Somehow he got his hands on the document, I’m not sure how,” she reveals in her new autobiography Cher: The Memoir, Part One, which has just been published.
“He called me up after reading it and said, ‘Sweetheart, this contract is involuntary servitude. You work for Sonny. You have no rights, no vote, no money, nothing. You’re an employee of something called Cher Enterprises with a salary you were likely never paid and three weeks’ vacation per year’.”
Sonny, it emerged, owned 95% of the company with the rest belonging to his lawyer, even though Cher was the acknowledged star. She was shocked to discover she wasn’t allowed to take any money from the business without permission, and could only work with Sonny’s permission. “I was an employee of Cher Enterprises with no ownership, so I couldn’t access any of the money I earned for the company,” she writes.
Sonny Bono And Cher at the 45th Academy Awards in 1973 (Image: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour – a variety-style TV show – attracted audiences of 30 million in the early seventies before being cancelled when the couple divorced in 1975. They reunited in 1976 for The Sonny & Cher Show which ran for two seasons before ending in 1977.
But when she confronted Sonny about the money as their relationship was breaking down, he told her simply: “I always knew you’d leave me.”
While they were battling in the courts, they carried on filming the final season of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.
“We were so accustomed to continuing with the show no matter what was happening in our personal lives that we did exactly what was expected of us, and more,” she writes. “Although Sonny looked thinner and there were times when his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes, he and I linked arms and sang Will You Love Me Tomorrow.”
Just a few weeks after filming the last episode on January 21, 1974, Sonny filed for divorce.
Cher: The Memoir, Part One is out now via HarperCollins priced £25. For free UK P&P, visit