Cher Opens Up About Traumatic Sexual Assault and Phil Spector Confrontation in New Memoir
Music legend Cher has courageously revealed a deeply traumatic sexual assault she endured at the age of seventeen, sharing the harrowing details in her newly published memoir. The two-time Grammy winner, now seventy-nine years old, was in a relationship with Sonny Bono at the time of the assault, a man she would later marry, but she felt too frightened to disclose the incident to him.
The Night of the Assault
In 1963, while Sonny Bono was working late in a music studio, Cher decided to spend the night at the apartment of her friend and former roommate, Josita. The residence was shared with Josita's boyfriend, Ulle, and another female roommate. After an evening out together, the group returned to the apartment, where everyone retired to bed, and Cher fell asleep on the living room couch.
"A few hours later I was aware of somebody lying next to me with their hand in my underpants," Cher recounts in her memoir. "Half-asleep, I thought I was home and then suddenly remembered that I wasn't. It was dark and all I could see was the outline of a man. Frozen, I lay there, my heart racing, until he moved slightly away."
Pretending to be drowsy, Cher got up and went to the bathroom, unsure of what to do. When she heard a door close, she prayed the assailant had left, but upon realising he was still present, she ran screaming into Josita's bedroom. Her quick-thinking friend Ulle immediately jumped up, turned on the light, and discovered that their roommate's drunken boyfriend had returned home with his girlfriend and, seeing Cher asleep on the couch, had taken advantage of the situation.
Cher spent the remainder of the night trying to calm down, terrified to breathe a word to Sonny Bono for fear he would murder the man responsible. This silence highlights the profound fear and isolation many assault victims experience, even when in supportive relationships.
Further Disturbing Encounters with Phil Spector
Tragically, this was not Cher's only encounter with sexual predators. In her memoir, she details "weird" interactions with the late, disgraced music producer Phil Spector. Introduced to Spector in the early 1960s by a boyfriend when she was just fifteen, Cher recalls feeling uncomfortable with how he stared at her.
In a particularly unsettling moment, Spector looked her up and down and propositioned her in French, asking, "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?" Cher cheekily retorted that she would sleep with him for money, a response that visibly shocked him. Years later, their professional relationship turned violent when Cher confronted Spector over illegally using her vocals on a European single.
According to Cher's account, Spector pulled a gun on her during this confrontation in an attempt to intimidate her. Showing remarkable bravery, Cher stared him down and demanded, "Don't f**k with me, Phillip! Put that f**king gun down and promise me you'll never do anything like this s**t with my music again, okay?" Spector quickly apologised, and though Cher doubted he would have pulled the trigger, she was left "pissed off" by the shocking incident. Phil Spector died in 2021 while serving a prison sentence for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.
Life After Trauma
Cher, who was legally divorced from Sonny Bono in 1975 after an eleven-year marriage, is now in a relationship with thirty-nine-year-old Alexander Edwards. Reports suggest the couple plan to marry ahead of Cher's eightieth birthday this year. Sonny Bono tragically died in 1998 following a skiing accident.
In her memoir, Cher also reveals she lost her virginity at the age of fourteen as an act of revenge against an older boyfriend, adding further context to her complex early life experiences. These candid disclosures provide a powerful, unfiltered look into the challenges and traumas faced by the iconic singer throughout her legendary career and personal life.
