Cher’s Son Felt ‘Shunned’ After She Sent Him Away As A Child But He Found Peace With Wife He Met While Battling Disease

Sep 12, 2023

Cher has been an icon for the majority of her life thanks to her amazing talents as an actress and singer. As a member of the musical duo Sonny & Cher, Cher skyrocketed to pop stardom in the late 1960s and went on to achieve great success in the years to come. She has struggled with heartache and hard times throughout her life but has always been a beacon of hope, positivity, and happiness for many people all over the world.

With plenty of drive and ambition to make a great life for herself full of fame and success, Cher worked hard at perfecting her skills as a singer and actress. Her bold personality helped her meet influential people along the way, but it was ultimately her own talent that made her the star she still is today. Cher’s powerful and unique voice helped her stand out against other singers. 

The performer has since become the Goddess of Pop for being a pinnacle figure in the male-dominated entertainment industry. With a career spanning over six decades, it’s no surprise that this talented woman has received a plethora of awards and praise for her incredulous work.

Spending so much time in the spotlight has led to much of her private life being made public, including her marriage to Sonny Bono and the life of their son Chaz Bono. A lesser-known part of Cher’s life is her second marriage and the birth of her second son, Elijah Blue Allman. While much has been made about Cher’s relationship with Chaz, Elijah has had a rough time of it feeling like the "black sheep" of the family. Read on to find out more about Elijah and his tenuous relationship with his famous mother.

Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946, in El Centro, California. She didn’t always live such a lavish and luxurious lifestyle, as Cher and her family struggled financially while the star was young. Before she was even a teenager, Cher had already shown a great interest in the arts and even produced her very own performance of the musical “Oklahoma!” for her fifth-grade teacher and class. Since she was unable to convince the boys in her class to participate, Cher decided to act out the male roles and sing their songs herself. Her unusually low voice fascinated many and ultimately led her to become the star she is today.

Cher was later enrolled at Montclair College Preparatory School, a private school in the Los Angeles neighborhood Encino. The upper-class environment of the school came as a shock to Cher. Although she was not the best student, Cher was still extremely intelligent and very creative, and her striking looks and personality made her even more of a leading light among her classmates.

When she turned 16 years old, Cher dropped out of school, left home, and moved to Los Angeles with a friend. She dedicated her life to her passion of becoming a star and began taking acting classes while working to support herself by dancing at small clubs. There, she was able to introduce herself to a litany of other performers as well as managers and talent agents. Her bold personality paid off when she met fellow performer Sonny Bono in November 1962.

Bono was best known for his skills as a singer, songwriter, and producer and introduced Cher to Phil Spector, a record producer who had many hits, including the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” Spector helped the rising star by having her work as a backup singer on a few recordings and even produced her first single, “Ringo, I Love You,” although Cher did not release the song under her own name. Written and produced by Spector, the song was a tribute to The Beatles. Radio station programmers struggled to like the singer’s deep, contralto vocals and ultimately turned down the opportunity to play her song on the air.

Cher and Bono grew closer and became good friends before turning their friendship into a romantic relationship. They got married in a hotel room in Mexico on Oct. 27, 1964. They went on to have one child together named Chaz. Although the original intent for their musical partnership was to help launch Cher’s solo career, Cher had other plans and insisted on her new husband joining her along her musical journey. 

They first emerged as a duo called Caesar & Cleo but received poor reviews for their work. After focusing on some solo projects for Cher, the pair tried their hand again at becoming a successful duo under the name Sonny & Cher. The couple quickly skyrocketed to fame not only for their musical talents but for their personalities and great sense of fashion. Fans began dressing similarly to the stars with bell-bottoms, ruffled shirts, and fur vests.

The duo’s song “I Got You Babe” was a massive hit and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1965 and spent three weeks at the top of the charts. It also received great success all around the world. Originally performed by the iconic pop duo, the British reggae-pop band UB40 made “I Got You Babe” their own and breathed new life into the beautiful song in 1985. Rolling Stone magazine then listed the original version of the song as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2003.

Cher had also kept up with her solo career during this time and released “The Sonny Side of Cher” in 1966, featuring the song “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).” Her solo work easily rivaled her work with Bono, as the singer managed to maintain popularity in both aspects of her career. Together, the pair continued to flourish and even had their own set of television shows. 

“The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour” aired from 1971 until 1974, a variety show filled with comedy sketches and musical performances that gave viewers a chance to get better acquainted with Cher and Bono and really connect with their individual personalities. They had a number of stars appear on the program, including Glen Campbell, Andy Griffith, and Carol Burnett. A new variety show titled “The Sonny and Cher Show” first aired a few years after “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour” wrapped up. Although Cher and Bono had divorced in 1975, they decided to work on the show together, but fans were not too keen on the joking nature of the divorced couple, leading to the show’s cancellation in 1977.

Cher’s disco-infused album “Take Me Home” brought her great popularity, but she decided to switch up her style with her 1979 album “Prisoner.” The album’s cover showcased Cher as a prisoner of the press, much to fans and critics’ dislike, and ultimately was a commercial failure. However, she had gone on to hold a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas from June 1979 until December 1981.

During the 1980s, Cher found great success in the film industry, landing both leading and supporting roles in a plethora of movies, including “Mask” and “Moonstruck.” The decade also breathed new life into her career with another smash hit record. In 1989, Cher released one of her most loved and iconic songs to date, “If I Could Turn Back Time.” Serving as the lead single off her 19th album “Heart of Stone,” the song found global success and praise and has been a fan favorite to see Cher perform in tours over the years.

Progressing into the 1990s, Cher starred in the movie “Mermaids,” which went on to be box-office success despite some hiccups between Cher and the film’s original directors. The star also faced a few health issues during this decade but never let anything stop her from pushing forward with her illustrious career. Following Bono’s death from a skiing accident in January 1998, Cher returned to the music scene with her album “Believe” in October that same year. The title track with the same name went on to become a massive hit all over the world and has continued to be an anthem of hope and positivity today.

In June 2002, Cher embarked on what was announced as her final live concert tour in her career, Living Proof: The Farewell Tour. The show continued to be extended as the tour progressed, with more and more dates being added, making it one of the most successful female tours ever. It later spawned an NBC special titled “Cher: The Farewell Tour” in 2003 that allowed more fans to witness the spectacle and earned Cher the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special.

Cher had one of the leading roles in the 2011 musical film “Burlesque,” which also starred Christina Aguilera and Stanley Tucci, her first musical film since “Good Times” in 1967. Being a mother in real life was brought into the film as she played a character who was very protective over the other dancers at the nightclub she worked at. Her song, “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me,” was a highlight of the movie and even went on to chart at No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs. 

In 2017, Cher was honored with the Billboard Icon Award at the Billboard Music Awards and gave a memorable performance of “Believe” and “If I Could Turn Back Time,” her first awards show performance in over 15 years. Showing her love for ABBA, Cher appeared in “Mama Mia! Here We Go Again” in 2018 and released a cover album with the appropriate title “Dancing Queen” in September 2018. She embarked on the Here We Go Again Tour the same month, the first tour she had done since she had set out on her farewell tour in 2002.

While her relationship with Bono was her most public throughout her career, Cher had also gotten remarried to Gregg Allman in 1975. Allman was known as a singer and songwriter for the Allman Brothers Band. Before they divorced in 1979, the couple had one child together named Elijah Blue Allman, born July 10, 1976. 

In 2014, Elijah opened up to Entertainment Tonight about his rough childhood years, including being sent to boarding school at such a tender age. He recounted:

“When you go to boarding school at 7 years old, it's kind of hard to feel like you're not being shunned… But I'm at an age where I'm making peace with it because you just have to. But I still...it doesn't mean it's right. It's still wrong to do that."

He revealed at one point, he was even “punished” for misbehaving by being sent to military school for one year.

Later in life, Elijah would pick up a drug habit, but his hard-partying ways ended when he was diagnosed with Lyme disease. While he described the condition as a "hideous ordeal," it came with a silver lining. While seeking treatment in Germany, he became acquainted with the woman he would one day marry. Elijah eventually eloped with Marieangela King, an English singer, on Dec. 1, 2013, without Cher even knowing. However, Elijah told Daily Mail that was the way he wanted it to be:

“I’ve always been the black sheep of my family. The reason being we just have different value systems and we just have a different mentality and that clashes a lot. We have lots of ups and downs and right now isn’t the best time.”

After the wedding, he said while other family members congratulated him, his mother did not.  

Despite the rocky start to his marriage, Elijah and his wife moved in with Cher. However, the move did not go as well as planned and Elijah and Cher stopped speaking for months after they moved out. 

“In due time I'm sure that has to happen. Anything like that always has to happen at an organic pace, so for me right now the priority in my life is just kind of coming back to the land of the living,” Elijah said.

He revealed Cher and his wife “clashed” a few times. “You’ve got two strong women, two big bulls in the pen. I think there’s a respect and I think they butt heads a little bit,” he said.

Despite their tumultuous relationship, Elijah said he was committed to working through his differences with Cher.

“We’ve got some more to go, but when you’re an adult, you take on a different sort of tone than when you’re an adolescent and I’m not going to sit in an adolescent’s kind of a mind frame because that’ll affect me negatively in my own life when I start my own family, so you got no choice if you want to be a balanced person, but to ultimately heal.” 

Elijah held high hopes for a reconciliation and said:

“(Cher’s) had her moments and I know she’s tried, I think it’s a very complex situation that historically has never made for a good parent (fame). I don’t think it’s anything she doesn’t know or hasn’t acknowledged. I know it’s a real regret, a real thing that for sure haunts her. I definitely know that the intent has been genuine. It’ll be mended because it has to be, it will just take time. We’ve never really dealt with our things from the past, but hopefully we will.”

Did you know about Cher’s son, Elijah, and their tenuous relationship? Do you think they will ever see eye-to-eye in the future? Let us know, and be sure to send this to any Cher fan you know!