Sonny and Cher are one of the most iconic partnerships in music and romance, but according to the latter artist, the feelings of attraction and admiration were largely one-sided at first. The couple first met in 1962. But they didn’t officially marry until 1969 (we won’t count their fake TV wedding in 1964).
Cher thought Sonny was the most interesting man she had ever seen. But Sonny’s feelings for Cher were less sentimental. But to be fair, he was married (albeit separated), namely was teenager.
The first meeting between Sonny and Cher
in a November 2024 interview with CBS Sunday morningCher recalled the first time she saw Sonny Bono in a coffee shop in 1962. Still in her teens, Cher, a fashion-conscious artist, recalled what the 27-year-old was wearing down to his shoes: The mohair suit, the mustard shirt. (But since this was in the pre-Beatles era, they were known as the Cubans.)
Cher recalls: “I thought it was as if Tony had met Maria,” referring to the meeting of romantic figures West Side Story. “I mean everyone disappeared. It was just the two of us. But he didn’t love me. It wasn’t love at first sight. It was something. I’ve never felt that before.”
Around the same time, Cher’s roommates kicked her out of their home. Bono, who had just moved into a neighboring apartment, offered her a place to stay if she cleaned the apartment. Cher had to, half because she refused to go back to her parents’ house and the other half because she thought Bono might move out.
Bono made sure to clear the air. “He said, ‘No, no, I don’t find you particularly attractive,'” Cher recalled. “So I was upset and happy at the same time.”
An interesting and dynamic partnership
After Sonny Bono and Cher became roommates, they soon began a musical partnership that would produce hits like “I Got You Babe” and “The Beat Goes On.” Romance came later, although Cher made it clear in a 1975 interview that this was not necessarily an emotional transition into their marriage.
Cher said (via biography), “Rather paternalistic. We were chained together, two people who needed each other, almost for protection. Even Cher’s mother noticed the similarities between her daughter’s new romantic and musical partner and her father, Johnny Sarkisian.
She explained: “Sonny was the spitting image of her father,” she explained. “I think the image of the father had a lot to do with Cher’s feelings, but I don’t think it would have helped if Cher had told her. When a girl falls in love with a guy as much as she did, there’s not much you can do about it.
Infidelity and professional pressures began to take a toll on the relationship, and the couple eventually divorced in 1975. Days later, Cher married Gregg Allman. That tumultuous relationship lasted until 1979. Bono married Susie Coelho in 1981, and they divorced three years later. One half of the famous Sonny and Cher duo died in 1998 in a skiing accident.
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