Cher was 18 when she married 29-year-old Salvatore “Sonny” Bono on Oct. 27, 1964, and they divorced just six years later—but the entity that was Sonny & Cher endured.
At one point, more than 30 million people were tuning in weekly to watch the “I Got You Babe” singers yuk it up on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour—height jokes directed at 5-foot-5 Sonny always killed—and the couple sold more than 40 million records. Which is why they kept performing together even after their divorce in 1975.
Though if she could turn back time, it’s unclear whether she would have married Sonny all over again, describing him in her memoir as growing increasingly controlling, unfaithful and, at times, abusive as he struggled with a painkiller addiction.
“I don’t know if it was love-hate, but it was rough,” Cher told USA Today in November 2024. “It was really, really rough.”
“I didn’t understand him,” Cher continued, “and I was hurt and angry, but it was more hurt because I couldn’t understand, why would you do this? And in the end, in that last year, I just thought, I don’t think I can do this much longer because it’s killing me.”
Sonny, who was divorced from Donna Rankin when he married Cher, went on to marry twice more. He served as mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., from 1988 until1992 and then was elected to Congress in 1995, representing California’s 44th district. He was 62 when he died in a skiing accident in 1998, and his fourth wife Mary Bono won his U.S. House seat in a special election.
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