Cher bio, career path, age, ethnicity, boyfriend, children, height 2025

Biography of Cher

Cher, the legendary Armenian-American singer and actress, has left an indelible mark on the world. A music composer, director, and successful entrepreneur, she's distinguished by her distinctive contralto voice and an impressive array of accolades - including an Oscar, Grammy, Golden Globe, Cannes Palm d'Or, and an Emmy. She remains the only singer whose hits have dominated America's music charts for over six decades.

Childhood

In spring 1946, in the town of El Centro, struggling actress Georgia Holt gave birth to a girl. By the time the newborn was ten months old, her mother had already filed for divorce from the child's father, truck driver John Sarkisian.

Father and daughter wouldn't meet again until the child, christened Cherilyn at birth, turned eleven. Growing up impoverished, Cherilyn was exceptionally shy, her lack of wealth a source of constant embarrassment.

Cherilyn also harbored deep envy toward the blonde, blue-eyed girls who epitomized American beauty at the time. Her father's prominent Armenian nose, her mother's elongated face and stubborn black hair – half Native American, half French – and her crooked teeth filled her with despair. Her peers taunted her, and she felt different from an early age:

I knew that a blue-eyed blonde, the woman I'd always wished to be, would never gaze back at me from the mirror.

Cherilyn's academic journey was tough, made even harder by dyslexia. Her mother, preoccupied with her own personal affairs, had little time to monitor her daughter's progress. On her fifth try at finding happiness, Georgia married Gilbert LaPiere, a respectable vice president of a small bank. Thanks to their stepfather, Cherilyn and her half-sister Georganne (born from Georgia's brief marriage to actor John Southall) finally enjoyed a better life.

From an early age, Cherilyn, who loved movies and rock concerts, dreamed of becoming a famous actress. Audrey Hepburn was her first idol, though Cher admits that it was only because Hepburn, like her, was a brunette. Cherilyn spent more time perfecting her autograph than anything else, believing the signatures she'd give to countless fans had to be absolutely perfect.

Cherilyn was a bit of a wild child, often disappearing to play with her friends on the streets. At the age of thirteen, she had a run-in with the law. A friend asked her to drive him in his own car to a drive-in theater. But he left to run errands and never came back. Cher was waiting in the car when a policeman knocked on the window. She was taken to the police station and didn't return home until late at night. Cher's mother later told this story on "The Tonight Show," even bringing along a photo of young Cher from the police station. The singer herself admits that she had completely forgotten about this incident.

Youth

At sixteen, Cherilyn had enough of school – academics just weren't her thing. She convinced a friend to drop out with her, and the two headed to Los Angeles in search of something better, where Cherilyn enrolled in acting school.

According to Cher, a chance meeting introduced her to Salvatore "Sonny" Bono, a musician who was then working as an assistant to producer Phil Spector. They got to talking over coffee at a small cafe. Sonny invited her to move in – as long as she kept the place clean and the fridge full. He also arranged for Cherilyn to work as a backup vocalist at Spector's studio. The two quickly bonded over their mutual love of rock music.

The 28-year-old Bono, who dabbled in songwriting, saw something special in the still-shy girl – strong ambition, a vibrant personality, and undeniable talent. Their two-year platonic friendship was pretty unconventional for an era when young people were all about peace and love, not war.

Sonny and Cher

Cher had just turned eighteen when Sonny decided to form two duos with her. One was a matrimonial union; Cher married Bono. The other was a performance duo. The name "Caesar and Cleo" (later changed to "Sonny and Cher") quickly became a household name, and their success was meteoric. Bono had killer instincts. While his young wife worried about not fitting the typical blonde, blue-eyed beauty standard, he pushed forward with their first album together, anchored by the hit single "I Got You Babe."

Bono personally brought the song to a radio show where listeners voted for their favorite composition. "I Got You Babe" dominated both American and British charts for weeks. It's the song that Bill Murray's character wakes up to every day in the movie "Groundhog Day."

Soon their album "Look at Us" was released. The duo's quirky appeal became their ticket to success. Just as Bono predicted, audiences couldn't resist Cher's stunning looks and sultry, distinctive voice, with long-haired hippie Sonny right beside her. Soon their second album "All I Really Want to Do" was released. Cher performed the title song from the album solo for the first time. The pair released seven more albums by the end of the sixties.

Cher – All I Really Want To Do

While their professional partnership brought them fame, their marriage brought them a surprise—a baby they named Chastity. They borrowed the name from a film Bono decided to self-finance, starring Cher in the lead role. Unfortunately, the film flopped, and all the money they'd made from music and performances quickly disappeared.

In 2010, their daughter transitioned and changed from Chastity to Chaz, which initially shocked Cher. Later, Cher said that while it was hard to accept having two sons instead of a son and daughter, above all, she wanted her children to be happy. If transitioning made her little girl a happy boy, she'd accept that, even though she still struggles with using male pronouns and calling her daughter by a male name:

Chaz still forgives me for all my slips, doesn't get mad at me, understands what I'm going through. And I love him — it doesn't matter what form he or she is in. My children are good, they have chosen their paths in life. My son Elijah is a musician, an artist, and lives near me in Malibu. But I'll never stop regretting that I spent much less time with them in their childhood than I should have.

Soon after their film debut flopped, the couple started performing on CBS's "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour," which brought them huge popularity and success. The most famous people came to visit them: Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, Muhammad Ali, David Bowie. They cracked jokes on TV every week, but behind the scenes, trouble was brewing at home.

Sonny was out partying with young women while Cher stayed home with their child. Their divorce in 1974 was scandalous, but later the singer confessed:

I was never as lonely as I was in my marriage to Sonny.

Solo Career and Second Marriage

But viewers couldn't get enough of the beloved Sonny and Cher show, so after some time, the former spouses reunited for television. Meanwhile, Cher was crushing it with her solo career, and a year after the divorce, she married rock musician Gregg Allman. The marriage brought two major developments: she gave birth to a son, Elijah Blue, and released a joint album with Allman.

But Allman's drug addiction was a deal-breaker for Cher. When he refused her help, Cher filed for divorce and launched a solo show in Las Vegas. After seeing her perform, Francis Ford Coppola encouraged her to try acting in films. In the early eighties, she moved to New York to star in the Broadway production "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean."

Impressed by her performance, director Mike Nichols cast Cher in his drama "Silkwood" alongside Meryl Streep. Cher didn't hesitate for a second. Her brilliant supporting performance earned her an Oscar nomination. She didn't win that time, but she took home the Palme d'Or at Cannes for "Mask," and finally snagged the Oscar for Best Actress in 1987 for her knockout performance in "Moonstruck," playing Loretta Castorini opposite a young Nicolas Cage.

At the ceremony, she made headlines in a legendary sheer dress with strategically placed beads that left little to the imagination. From that moment on, provocative, sexy outfits became Cher's signature look.

Cher Wins Best Actress | 60th Oscars (1988)

That same year saw the release of "The Witches of Eastwick" (with Cher as witch Alexandra Medford) and "Suspect" (playing Kathleen Riley). Meanwhile, she signed with Geffen Records and released a new album featuring collaborations with Jon Bon Jovi, Michael Bolton, and Diane Warren.

The music video for "If I Could Turn Back Time" was banned by conservative TV channels because Cher's barely-there outfit was too hot to handle.

After more than forty years in the spotlight, the singer was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome in 1992. But Cher couldn't stay away for long, making a cameo appearance in "The Player." In 1995, the singer released the legendary album "It's a Man's World". But the crowning achievement of Cher's musical career is widely considered to be the album "Believe"; its title song brought a Grammy award to the pop diva's collection.

Cher – Believe

During this period, Cher learned that her first husband, Sonny Bono, died while skiing. She was devastated by the loss, as it was this man who opened the way to fame for her, was her first man, and was the father of her first child. After falling into depression for almost a year, she only appeared in public again in 1999, to perform the US anthem in the final of the Super Bowl football game and to appear in the film "Tea with Mussolini".

According to the actress, medium James Van Praagh helped her establish a mystical connection with her late husband. In the meantime, she wrote the book "The First Time" and decided to try her hand at directing. For the movie "If These Walls Could Talk," Cher was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Farewell Tour and Eternal Youth

The beginning of the new millennium marked the beginning of Cher's farewell to her performing career. While her famous farewell tour "Living Proof: The Farewell Tour" is now hailed as the most commercially successful tour by a female artist in history, Cher was dead serious about retiring from performing at the time. From 2002 to 2005, she toured the globe, hitting more than twenty countries and performing 325 concerts that grossed over a quarter of a billion dollars.

From 2008 to 2011, Cher honored her Las Vegas contract, headlining "Cher at the Colosseum" at Caesar's Palace while also appearing in the film "Burlesque," where she showcased her musical talents. In summer 2012, the actress found love again, marrying rugged biker Tom Medvetz. As the pop diva aged, her taste in men skewed increasingly younger.

The youngest of them turned out to be baker Rob Camilletti, who was eighteen years younger than his beloved. Cher gushed that he had the most beautiful face she'd ever seen, but her chosen one couldn't handle the spotlight and eventually fled the relationship with the stage goddess.

The singer's fiery temperament and stunning looks—which she works tirelessly to maintain—combined with her talent and charm, proved overwhelming for the men in her life. But how this remarkable woman handles aging is truly admirable. Cher herself believes that she just got lucky with her genes:

My mom, God bless her, looks amazing at 83—many young women would kill for her figure. And my grandmother—who had my mother at 14, by the way—also looked fantastic and lived to 96. She hit the gym four times a week until she broke her hip. So I pray and hope for the best. Plus, contrary to what people think, I'm actually pretty disciplined. I don't drink, smoke, or take drugs. When I'm performing, I live like a nun. I get up at 10 a.m., work out for an hour and a half, then hit dance class and the pool—I love windsurfing too. Everything except Pilates—I think it's mind-numbingly boring. I've been physically active for as long as I can remember. My sister read books, and I ran and climbed trees.

Even her passion for tattoos (a butterfly, lily, cracked diamond, and a bracelet of crosses and hearts) was over-the-top, though Cher later paid a fortune to have them all removed. The singer herself says:

I was once forty, now I'm much older. I know for sure that forty was better. I'm terrified that one day I'll wake up as some old grump who doesn't want to go to Disneyland. I have a dream—to never get old. That's why I torment myself with exercises.

Cher Now

In 2018, the superstar made her big screen comeback, stepping into the role of Ruby Sheridan, Donna's mother and Sophie's grandmother in "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again." The role sparked such inspiration that Cher released the album "Dancing Queen," with tracks that immediately climbed to the top of the American charts.

In summer 2019, The New York Times listed Cher among hundreds of artists whose belongings and master recordings were destroyed in the devastating 2008 Universal Studios Hollywood fire. Reports revealed that the singer was most heartbroken about losing her beloved skull and crossbones t-shirt, prompting her to tweet:

My t-shirt is gone. The same one - black with a white pirate skull and crossbones. I wore it for 30-40 years. It's my favorite piece of clothing. I went to pray to Saint Anthony, who helps find what you lose!

In February 2020, Cher participated in a spectacular motorcycle photoshoot along with Kim Kardashian and Naomi Campbell. Later, behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot was released, which the singer shared with her million Instagram followers.

In November 2020, Cher criticized Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's policies regarding Nagorno-Karabakh. On Twitter, the singer predicted a "real hell" awaiting her ancestral nation following the government's "painful concessions" during the military conflict. Cher, whose father was of Armenian descent, has often expressed her concern and solidarity for the Armenian people and their struggles. This statement reflects her ongoing engagement and concern for the region.

Cher Condemns the Ethnic Cleansing of Armenians in Artsakh

In 2022, Cher expressed her support for Ukraine following Russia's assault

Cher: latest news and articles

Singer Cher evacuated from her home in Malibu, where severe fires are raging

11 Dec 2024

Singer Cher announced that she will end her career after releasing a new album

27 Nov 2024

Photos: Cher