Cher has opened up about the shocking lengths Sonny Bono went to after she left him for another man in her new autobiography, Cher: The Memoir, Part One. In a candid revelation, Cher, 78, shared how the late music icon hired private detectives to follow her when she fled their tumultuous marriage for guitarist Bill in the 1970s.
During the time of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, Cher found herself growing closer to Bill, a guitarist she had fallen for. Despite their professional success, her marriage to Sonny was in crisis, with Cher admitting that she felt suffocated by Bono’s constant insecurity. Cher explained, “Ever since we’d first started living together, he’d been secretly convinced I’d leave him one day,” a fear he would only confess years later.
In the heat of the moment, Cher bluntly confessed to Sonny her desire to sleep with Bill. She recounted how Sonny, devastated by her honesty, responded by saying, “America will hate you for breaking this up.” That night, despite having a performance lined up, Cher made the difficult decision to leave Sonny behind, packing a bag and escaping to the home of her friends, Paulette and Ridgeway, where Bill awaited.
The tangled love triangle took an even more dramatic turn when Cher discovered that Sonny, out of spite, had slept with Bill’s girlfriend the night before. This betrayal pushed Cher over the edge, prompting her to flee to San Francisco with Bill using money Sonny had given her. But as the couple drove to Sausalito, they became separated in the thick San Francisco fog—unbeknownst to them, Sonny had enlisted private investigators to follow them.
As Cher and Bill checked into a hotel around 4 a.m., they opted to keep separate rooms to avoid gossip, but it wasn’t long before they succumbed to their chemistry. Cher later confessed that the encounter was life-changing: “A little later, we made love, and it was unbelievable. I knew then that I would never have sex with Sonny again.”
Their bliss, however, was short-lived. The private detectives, still tailing the couple, eventually found Cher and alerted Sonny. Back in Los Angeles, Cher returned to her professional commitments, and a press release was issued claiming her absence was due to “exhaustion.” But the damage had already been done.
Despite their personal turmoil, Cher and Sonny continued to work together on their CBS variety show, only to divorce in 1975. It was a relationship marked by profound love, professional success, and, ultimately, betrayal. Cher’s memories of those days show how complex their bond was—and how deeply Sonny’s insecurities ran.
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