We’ve heard a ton of great stories about Cher’s life and her amazing career. But in her recent memoir, “Cher: The Memoir, Part One,” she peels back the layers, revealing the raw, unfiltered truth of her early years. The music legend goes as far back to her early teens where she talks about her first sexual experience at just 14 years old.
While looking back on that time, she recounts a romance with a neighborhood boy. She said she would would often kiss him in her bedroom, but when his friends were around, his whole behavior would change. “[He] was sweet enough when we were alone, but as soon as his friends came around, he’d treat me like an embarrassing kid,” she wrote. Cher recalled the painful memory of her boyfriend’s friends
planning a restaurant outing one day, and asked him if he was bringing “that kid.” Cher’s boyfriend ended up ditching her that day and all she could think about was revenge.
“I was so hurt when he did that, I had revenge sex with him,” she candidly reveals. “It wasn’t a decision made from desire; rather, it was an act of defiance against the pain of rejection. “I had never wanted to. Otherwise I would have done it one of the five hundred other times he asked.” She added, “But I was so angry at being dismissed, I decided to, if not lose, loan out my virginity to him.” It was her attempt to reclaim some semblance of power in a situation that left her feeling diminished…
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Yet, the aftermath of that experience was anything but fulfilling. She labeled the experience as “massively overrated.”
“I wanted him to feel just as dismissed as he’d made me feel.” But did it work? Cher said she could only reflect on her mother’s warnings about losing her virginity at the time, a lesson that lingered in her mind. “My mother warned me that the minute I lost my virginity she’d know because she’d see it in my eyes, so after the romp with the Italian, I ran to the mirror to check,” she wrote. “I half expected to see the word ‘sex’ flashing in fluorescent letters across my forehead, but I couldn’t spot anything different, and she didn’t either.”
This memoir is just the first part of Cher’s story, which also delves into her tumultuous marriage to Sonny Bono, a relationship she describes as “loveless” and one that pushed her to the brink during their peak fame in the 1970s. As she navigates through the highs and lows of her life, Cher offers readers a glimpse not just into her experiences but into the universal journey of love, loss, and self-discovery.
“Cher: The Memoir, Part One” is available now.
