Cher says her mother wanted to put Sonny Bono ‘in jail’ because of their 11-year age difference.

• Cher says her mother wasn’t happy when she started dating Sonny Bono, who was 11 years her senior.

• The “Believe” singer told “CBS Sunday Morning” that she “lied to him a couple of times” about her age.

• These days, Cher prefers younger men: She has a 40-year age gap with her current partner, Alexander Edwards.

There is at least one person who did not initially approve Chers age gap relationship with Sonny Bono – her mother.

During an interview with Anthony Mason on “CBS Sunday morning“On Sunday, Cher spoke about how her relationship with Bono – who was 11 years her senior – started when she was still a minor.

The “Believe” singer first met Bono in a coffee shop in the early 1960s and she lied to him about her age, she said.

“I lied to him a couple of times. I told him I was 18, and then somebody said, ‘You know, I don’t think she’s 18.’ So I said, ‘OK, I’m not 18, but next month is my birthday’ – which was true – ‘and I’m going to be 18,’ Cher told Mason, recounting her words.

“He said OK, and then I was 17. And my mom told him she was going to put him in jail,” Cher said.

Her first meeting with Bono made a big impression on her, she said.

“I thought it was like when Tony met Maria,” Cher said, referring to the main characters of “West Side Story.”

While it wasn’t “love at first sight,” it was “something” she’s “never felt” before, she said: “I mean, everybody disappeared and it was just the two of us. But he didn’t like me . “

Although Bono didn’t find her attractive at first, their relationship eventually blossomed, she said.

Cher married Bono in 1964 and soon they began performing together. Your child, Chaz Bonowas born in 1969 and the couple divorced in 1975.

Looking back on their relationship, Cher says that their 11-year-old age difference never felt strange.

“He was kind of childish. He had to be real with me because I didn’t expect anything. I didn’t want money, I didn’t think about anything, you know. And all these other women his age, they wanted him to stay adult,” Cher said.

These days, Cher — now 78 — prefer to date younger men.

“And the reason I date young men is because men my age or older — well, now they’re all dead — but before they were just never afraid to approach me,” Cher said on ” The Jennifer Hudson Show” in May.

The singer has been in a relationship with music manager Alexander Edwards since 2022. They have an age difference of 40 years.

Cher isn’t the only one celebrity in an age gap relationship. Others include Dick Van Dyke and Arlene Silver, who are 46 years apart, Jay-Z and Beyoncéthat are 12 years apart, and Blake Lively and Ryan Reynoldswhich are 11 years apart.

In March, on “The View”, Whoopi Goldberg said that she once dated a man who was 40 years older than her. In the same episode, her co-host Joy Behar said it is “scientifically smart” for women to date younger men because they will have the same lifespan.

A representative for Cher said the singer had no further comment.

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