Cher Makes a Bold Admission About Meeting Sonny Bono for the First Time

Cher opened up about her first meeting with the late Sonny Bono during a recent interview with CBS Sunday Morning.

The two singers, who went on to find success as Sonny & Cher, met for the first time in 1962, when Cher was 16 and Bono was 27. The age gap wasn’t strange for the “Believe” singer, who suggested that Bono was able to be “real” with her because she “didn't expect anything.”

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“I didn't want money. I didn't think about anything, you know,” Cher said during her interview with CBS News’ Anthony Mason, a clip from which the Sunday morning news program shared on social media.

Cher recalled meeting Bono inside a coffee shop. He was at the time wearing a mohair suit with a mustard-colored shirt and Beatle boots. Though the attraction wasn’t mutual at first, Cher still recalled feeling blown away.

“I thought it was like when Tony met Maria,” Cher said, referring to the romantic leads in West Side Story. “I mean, everybody disappeared.”

On Bono’s end, “he didn't like me,” Cher remembered, adding that Bono instead indicated an admiration for one of her friends. “It wasn't love at first sight. It was something.”

Even when Cher moved in with Bono, a transition driven by her need for a place to live, their relationship hadn’t progressed beyond the friendship stage—yet.

“He went, ‘No, no. I don't find you particularly attractive,’” Cher said. “So, I was upset and happy at the same time.”

That eventually changed, though, as the two married in 1964, stayed together for a little over one decade and welcomed a son before they ultimately divorced in 1975. In that time, they found success singing together as Sonny & Cher, performing pop hits such as “I Got You Babe” and “Baby Don’t Go.” They also starred together in The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and, later, The Sonny & Cher Show, 1970s-era TV programs inspired by their successful life together.

Looking back, Cher suggested that she was able to bond with her late ex-husband because of that lack of expectation on her end. “All these other women that were his age, they wanted him to be grown up,” Cher said. While Bono was “kind of childish”—she recalled them once spending an entire day painting with watercolors—many other women who were closer in age to Bono had different priorities. “I don't think those ladies wanted to do that,” she said.

Cher's interview is slated to air in full on Sunday, Nov. 17.

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