Legendary singer nearly jumped off balcony to escape ‘loveless marriage’

Cher reveals in her recently released memoir, “Cher: The Memoir Part 1,” that she contemplated jumping off a balcony in Las Vegas amid her “loveless marriage” to Sonny Bono (via People). Cher was 16 years old when she met Bono, then 27. The two were officially married in 1969, but Cher writes that by 1972 she felt “trapped” by her relationship to Bono. She was 26 years old when she stepped onto her hotel balcony in Vegas and looked down.

“I was dizzy with loneliness,” Cher writes. “I saw how easy it would be to step over the edge and simply disappear. For a few crazy minutes I couldn’t imagine any other option. I did this five or six times.”

What stopped Cher from jumping was thoughts of her loved ones, including her child Chaz and her sister Georganne and mother Georgia.

“Things like this could make people who look up to me feel that it’s a viable solution,” Cher writes about stopping herself from jumping off the balcony. This led to an epiphany: “I don’t have to jump off. I can just leave him.”

Cher and Bono quietly separated after the Vegas incident and filed for divorce in 1974. Despite a resulting custody battle over Chaz, the two eventually made peace with each other. Cher told People last year that Bono “pissed me off royally and hurt me” but ultimately apologized for his behavior. Bono died in 1998 at 62 years old.

“One day he came into the kitchen at my house and said, ‘Cher, I want to apologize. I realized that I hurt you in so many ways, and I was wrong,’” Cher said. “That went a long way for me.”

Cher’s memoir, “Cher: The Memoir Part 1,” is now available for purchase.

If you or anyone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.