Cher reveals she was sexually assaulted by a roommate’s boyfriend at the age of 17 and feared to tell partner Sonny in case he murdered the guy
Cher revealed in her memoir that when she was 17, she was sexually assaulted by a friend’s roommate’s boyfriend.
The 79-year-old two-time Grammy winner was in a relationship at the time with Sonny Bono, whom she later married, but was afraid to tell him what happened.
If I Could Turn Back Time singer He claimed that Sonny was working late at the music studio one evening in 1963, so he decided to spend the night at a friend’s house.
Recalling the traumatic event, she said: ‘Bored and a little scared on my own, I spent a night with my friend and former roommate Josita, who lived in a two-bedroom flat with her boyfriend Ulle and another girl.
‘After an evening out together we went to his house, everyone slept there and I fell asleep on the sofa.
‘A few hours later I noticed someone lying next to me with his hand inside my underwear. Half asleep, I thought I was at home, but then I suddenly remembered that I wasn’t.
Cher revealed in her memoir that when she was 17, she was sexually assaulted by a friend’s roommate’s boyfriend.
The 79-year-old two-time Grammy winner was in a relationship with Sonny Bono at the time – whom she later married – but was afraid to tell him what happened; pictured 1980
‘It was dark and all I could see was the silhouette of a man. ‘I lay there frozen, my heart pounding until he moved a little ways away.’
The hitman continued: ‘I got up pretending to be sleepy and went into the bathroom, not knowing what to do. ‘When I heard a door close, I prayed he was gone, but when I realized he was still there, I screamed and ran past him into Josita’s bedroom.’
Luckily, her quick-thinking friend reacted quickly and jumped out of bed as Cher ran into her room.
“Ulle jumped up and turned on the light and saw her roommates drunk boyfriend returning home with his girlfriend and when she saw me lying on the couch she thought about lying down next to me and getting her hands free,” Cher wrote.
Discussing his thought process later, he added: ‘It took me the rest of the night to calm down and I didn’t dare say a word to Sonny for fear he would kill the man.’
Cher is currently dating boyfriend Alexander Edwards, 39, and is reportedly preparing to get married ahead of her 80th birthday this year.
Sonny and Cher were legally divorced on June 26, 1975, ending their 11-year marriage. Sonny died tragically in 1998 at the age of 62 following a skiing accident.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t Cher’s only experience with sexual harassers as she detailed her ‘weird’ interactions with the late Phil Spector.
The If I Could Turn Back Time singer claimed Sonny was working late at the music studio one evening in 1963, so he decided to spend the night at a friend’s house instead.
‘I fell asleep on the couch. A few hours later I noticed someone lying next to me with his hand inside my underwear. I lay there frozen, my heart pounding until he moved a little further away.
The Moonstruck actress met the songwriter in the early 1960s through her then-boyfriend, musician Antonino LoTempio.
He invited then-15-year-old Cher, born Cheerily Sarkisian, to meet Spector at his hotel room.
‘He might have been a demigod to many people, but he acted strangely and I didn’t like the way he looked at me,’ he wrote of the music producer in his book The Memoir Part One.
The music icon recalled the heartbreaking moment when he looked her up and down and proposed to her in French.
“Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?” he said, grinning and asking me to sleep with him,” Cher wrote. The singer brazenly said that he would have sex with her in exchange for money.
‘Without hesitation, I looked back at him and replied: “Oui, pour l’argent.”
He continued in his book: ‘You could have knocked him down with a feather. He didn’t think I would even understand the question, let alone get an answer.’
Later in the memoir, Cher also discussed the time, years after their collaboration, that Spector illegally used her vocals on a European single.
Enraged, he confronted Spector for the breach of his contract, but was met with hostility. According to Cher, the producer tried to scare her and things turned violent.
The late composer allegedly pulled a gun on the superstar to achieve his goal.
She wrote in her book of the moment: ‘As she looked at him angrily as she twirled it between her fingers, she said, ‘Don’t make fun of me, Phillip!’ I said.
Discussing his thought process later, he added: ‘It took me the rest of the night to calm down and I didn’t dare say a word to Sonny for fear he would kill the man.’
Cher is currently dating boyfriend Alexander Edwards, 39, and is reportedly preparing to get married ahead of her 80th birthday this year.
‘This is me Cher, okay? … Put down that damn gun and promise me you’ll never do anything like that to my music again, okay?’ he said fearlessly.
Cher wrote that Spector immediately apologized but was upset by the situation.
Although he doubted he could pull the trigger, he was still ‘angry’ about the shocking incident.
The disgraced music producer died of natural causes in 2021 while serving time behind bars for the 2003 second-degree murder of Barbarian Queen actress Lana Clarkson.
Later in her memoirs, the star revealed that she lost her virginity at the age of 14 to take revenge on her older boyfriend.
