Cher Reveals Heart-Wrenching Details of Her Secret Gruesome Abortion at 17 – And How She and Sonny ‘Cried Together’ After Horrifying Procedure
Cher shared the gruesome details of an abortion she had at 17 years old in her new memoir.
Dec. 10 2024, Published 11:19 a.m. ET
Cher has unleashed gut-wrenching details about her traumatic abortion at just 17 years old with Sonny Bono.
In her explosive new book, Cher: The Memoir: Part One, the singer got candid about feeling excited to have Sonny's baby at the time, but a twist of "fate" left her crying in agony with the songwriter by her side, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The singer recalled how much pain she was in when she lost her and Sonny's baby as a teen.
Cher detailed how she had been living with Sonny for a bit when she fell pregnant at 17, which she labeled a "huge shock" since they "hadn't been trying at all".
She also admitted they weren't exactly "not careful", noting how contraceptive pills were only available to married women at the time.
Cher said Sonny sat with her and cried after she had a gruesome abortion.
Explaining how they felt about potentially having a child together, Cher wrote: "The weird thing was that once I found out I was going to have Sonny's baby, it was hard to be unhappy.
"Sonny was excited too, but worried that a baby would interfere with his work in the music industry. Plus, he already had a daughter."
The Grammy winner then said "fate intervened" and she lost the baby at 16 weeks, leading her to be in extreme burning pain that left her screaming all the way to the doctor's office.
She said: "I was so scared because I was in so much pain and didn't know what was happening."
Cher explained the abortion procedure, saying doctors laid her on a table, "made some bad faces", and began "cutting".
The singer added: "They kept on putting something in a metal tin that sounded like fish flopping or pieces of liver hitting a pan. It sounded worse than it was, because as he cut he was relieving the pressure and the pain."
Cher said Sonny was "right there for her" and recalled how they "cried together at their loss".
She continued: "When it was over, Sonny took me home to rest, where I went quiet and withdrew into myself for a while. Within a week, though, we were right back at Gold Star to pick up where we'd left off."
The 'If I Could Turn Back Time' hitmaker fully details her and Sonny's tumultuous marriage in her new memoir.
Sonny and Cher went on to have a rollercoaster marriage, which she fully detailed in Part 1 of her new book.
It all began when the two met at a coffee shop, where Sonny joined Cher and a group of her friends. While it wasn't exactly "love at first sight", Cher noted how "everyone else in the room faded" when he walked up to her booth.
Cher also mentioned how Sonny initially attempted to swindle her friend Melissa – although she was gay and had zero interest in pursuing the songwriter.
The singer went on to live with Sonny after bopping around with different friends, although her mom wasn't too happy with her 16-year-old daughter shacking up with a man 10 years her senior.
While they were friends for a while at the start, they got married in 1964 and divorced in 1975, welcoming one child, Chaz, along the way.
The collaborators had an incredibly tumultuous relationship, with Cher even admitting in her memoir to having suicidal thoughts while married to Sonny.
Never Miss an
Daily updates from the heart of Hollywood, right to your inbox
By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you’re agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
She wrote: "I stepped barefoot onto the balcony of our suite and stared down. I was dizzy with loneliness. I saw how easy it would be to step over the edge and simply disappear. For a few crazy minutes I couldn’t imagine any other option."
The 78-year-old said she reached this point "five or six times", but each time she would think about her child, which helped pull her away from the suicidal thoughts.
Cher told Sonny she wanted to sleep with a younger man during their marriage.
Elsewhere in her book, Cher also admitted to having an affair while married to Sonny, revealing she even told him she wanted to sleep with a younger guitarist named Bill – a "tall 21-year-old with a Texas drawl".
Sonny, who went on to serve as the 16th mayor of Palm Springs, California, died in January 1998.
Have a tip? Send it to us! Email RadarOnline.com at tips@radaronline.com.
