Cher: The Memoir: Part One

Cher is a 2024 memoir by the legendary American singer Cher. The book begins with Cher’s family history and her birth in 1946 and ends with her first residency at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas in 1979. This memoir’s sequel will be released in autumn 2025. In her work, Cher opens up about her personal and professional life, reflecting on her tumultuous childhood and family life with her actress mother, Georgia; little sister, Gee; and numerous stepfathers. She also discusses her sudden rise to fame at age 19 and details the highs and lows of her relationship with her partner in love and work, Sonny Bono. 

This guide refers to the Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of addiction, substance use, child abuse, child sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, pregnancy loss and termination, mental illness, suicidal ideation, death, and cursing.

Summary

In her Preface, Cher reveals that she fell in love with music at an early age, singing along to Elvis and Ray Charles with her mother, who was also musically talented. In Chapter 1, “Georgia on My Mind,” Cher explains that her mother was born Jackie Jean to teenage parents during the Great Depression in rural Arkansas. Though the young Jackie Jean was a talented singer and provided for her family by singing in saloons, her poverty and her parents’ instability prevented her from formally training in singing. 

At age 19, Jackie Jean began dating Johnnie Sarkisian, who pressured her into marriage. She soon gave birth to Cher, but the family suffered due to Johnnie’s substance and gambling addictions. Eventually abandoned by Johnnie, Jackie Jean ended up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where she had to give up Cher to a Catholic childcare facility for months while she worked as a waitress. Chapter 3 explains how Jackie Jean reclaimed Cher from the institution and returned to California, divorcing Johnnie and enrolling in acting school. After a brief marriage to actor Chris Alcaide, Jackie Jean remarried actor John Southall, but the marriage soured when Jackie Jean did not want to live in Texas with John and returned to California. Jackie Jean and John later reconciled, and Cher spent a lot of time with John’s loving parents, Mamaw and Pa, while her parents worked in acting. Her little sister, Georgina, or “Gee,” was born, and Cher felt unsettled and jealous at first. While John could be abusive when he was drunk, Cher loved him and was upset when Jackie Jean divorced him.

In Chapters 5 and 6, Cher reflects on her preteen years living in the Valley, revealing that she loved musical theater and had an independent and confident personality. At this time, Cher went through a difficult phase, living with her grandparents when her mother could not afford to pay rent for herself and the kids. She also became more aware of her family’s poverty, which caused her social embarrassment and anxiety. In Chapter 7, Cher reflects on more big changes in her adolescent life, such as a short-lived life of luxury when her mother married real-estate magnate Joseph Harper Collins. After their divorce, Cher’s biological father, Johnnie Sarkisian, contacted the family, and he and Jackie Jean, who now went by Georgia, remarried. Cher loved Johnnie’s extended family, who were kind to her, but she was wary of Johnnie himself. Cher endured more upheaval when the family’s move to Vegas was squandered by Johnnie’s heroin and gambling addictions.

In Chapter 8, Cher reflects on her early teens and her family’s big move to New York City, where they joined her mother’s new husband, Gilbert LaPiere. Cher enjoyed New York and the more affluent lifestyle that LaPiere, a wealthy banker, provided, but she saw how miserable her mother was there. They soon returned to California. At 15, Cher began having romances, dropped out of high school, and began taking acting classes. Her relationship with her mother became increasingly strained, and she moved out, sharing an apartment with the family’s maid.

In Chapter 9, the author recounts meeting Sonny Bono for the first time and loving his unique style and fun-loving personality. Since Cher needed a new place to live, she moved in with Sonny, who agreed to let her live in his apartment rent-free in exchange for cleaning and organizing the place. The arrangement soon fell apart when her mother found out about it, and Cher moved back in with her family. In the following chapter, Cher explains her continued close friendship with Sonny, which soon blossomed into romance. Cher became increasingly involved in his work at the music record label Gold Star, and the two began to record their own music in the studio, though without much success.

Cher and Sonny hired publicists to help them promote their music. When The Rolling Stones visited the Gold Star studios, they suggested that Cher and Sonny might find greater success in England. The two found an eager fandom in England, and their newfound fame followed them home to the US, motivating them to record their song “Baby, Don’t Go,” which became the hit they were hoping for. In Chapter 12, “I Got You, Babe,” Cher recalls how she and Sonny were both delighted and bewildered by the intensity of their fame and the adoration of their fans. She enjoyed the perks of fame, such as meeting Jackie Kennedy and being photographed for Vogue. As the countercultural movements of the 1960s gained momentum, their wholesome, married-couple image began to fall out of fashion. In Chapter 13, Cher recalls how her relationship with Sonny deteriorated when she caught him being unfaithful to her, but she tried to reconcile with him, and they soon had a baby named Chastity.

In the following chapter, the author reveals her shock when Sonny revealed that he had mismanaged their finances, leaving them hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). She agreed to go on a tour of smaller venues to make some money, but she was miserable with this stressful life on the road.

Chapter 15 explains how Sonny and Cher redeveloped their touring show to include more comedic bits and banter, which their audiences loved. With their tour increasingly successful, they secured a television show called The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, which became an instant success. In Chapter 16, Cher explains how Sonny became increasingly controlling toward her, limiting her activities, mobility, and friendships while also pressuring her to work more than she wanted to. Cher became depressed and considered suicide; she ultimately decided to leave Sonny. Chapter 17 explores the complicated limbo period in which Cher had separated from Sonny and was enjoying her newfound freedom, but the two continued to pretend to be happily married for the sake of their show.

In Chapter 18, Cher explains how her new boyfriend, the powerful record producer David Geffen, helped her understand how her contract with Sonny had exploited her for his benefit. This prompted Cher to leave The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, and David helped support her as she transitioned into a solo career. In Chapter 19, Cher reflects on how she learned to embrace being the solo host of her own TV show, Cher, and how the end of her relationship with David led her to fall for musician Gregory Allman.

Cher reveals that she tried many times to help her new partner, Gregory, overcome his addiction to heroin, which put immense stress on their relationship. Cher’s ratings began to slip; worried about her future, she reached out to Sonny. The two agreed to collaborate again on another season of The Sonny and Cher Show, a decision that helped their careers but strained Cher’s marriage to Gregory. In her final chapter, Cher reminisces about her busy years as a mother of two young kids and an in-demand solo artist. While she found creative fulfillment in her many pursuits, she still yearned to follow her dream of film acting. She concludes her work with a hint that this was the next step of her professional life, to be continued in the next installment of her memoir.