Love doesn’t always have to happen at first sight — at least not for Cher.
Cher, 78, who was once married to singer-politician Sonny Bono, revealed that her romance with Bono didn’t begin as love at first sight.
In an upcoming appearance on CBS Sunday Morning set to air on November 17, Cher walked down memory lane and shared her love story with host Anthony Mason.
When Mason said “In 1962, you meet Sonny in a coffee shop. He’s wearing a mohair suit and a mustard color shirt,” Cher replied with a smile, “With a white collar and Beatle boots, but they were called Cuban,” proving she still remembers all the tidbits of her meeting with her ex-husband.
Bono tragically died on January 5, 1998, in a skiing accident, according to reports.
The meeting was nothing short of magical for Cher who describes it as “I thought it was like when Tony met Maria. I mean, everybody disappeared,” referring to the iconic couple in West Side Story.
Now, while you might think it to be the start of a perfect storybook romance, reality takes a turn here. “He didn’t like me,” Cher revealed.
“It wasn’t love at first sight. It was something,” she said. “I never felt it before.”
As per PEOPLE, then-16-year-old Cher accepted 27-year-old Bono’s offer to be his housekeeper and eventually entered a romantic relationship with one another.
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“He liked my girlfriend,” Cher revealed. “When I had to go live with him, he said, ‘You know, you can come and stay with me.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’ And he went, ‘No, no. I don’t find you particularly attractive.’ So I was upset and happy at the same time.”
The couple became the duo Sonny & Cher in 1964 and went on to tie the knot the same year. They had eight Top 20 hits in the 1960s and ’70s, and their TV series, “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour,” was a hit show.
In 1969, they welcomed their child, Chaz. Cher was 22 at that time. However, their love story was short-lived as they got divorced in 1975.
Bono then married Susie Coelho in 1981 and got divorced in 1984.
In a 2023 interview with PEOPLE, Cher revealed that Bono “pissed me off royally and hurt me.”
Prior to his death in 1998, Bono offered Cher an apology. “One day he came into the kitchen at my house and said, ‘Cher, I want to apologize. I realized that I hurt you in so many ways, and I was wrong,’” the singer recalled. “That went a long way for me.”
While the apology wasn’t enough to heal all the wounds, Cher admitted it did mean something.
“The fact that he came and said it meant something to me, that at least he acknowledged that he had been hurtful,” she said.
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Cher is now gearing up for the release of her memoir, Cher: The Memoir – Part One, which will be published on November 19 by HarperCollins.