How Cher & Sonny Bono Finally Ended Their Messy Marriage Over 50 Years Ago

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Welcome to Scandal Rewind, a column where the Nicki Swift staff looks back at a celebrity scandal from years past.

The marriage of Cher and Sonny Bono — the iconic duo who sang "I Got You Babe" — ultimately concluded on June 26, 1975. Their divorce sparked a significant new chapter for the pair, who'd spent most of the 1960s and '70s entertaining folks with their musical talents and hosting skills. While fans had looked up to the musical duo for 13 years, their shocking split revealed that Sonny and Cher's marriage was anything but aspirational behind the scenes. For starters, their age-gap relationship allegedly started when Cher was still underage.

Although they didn't legally get married until 1969, when she was 23 and Sonny was 34, the A-list couple had a symbolic wedding ceremony when the "Believe" hitmaker was only 18 years old. But they started living together one year before then. "I told him I was 18 and then someone said, 'You know, I don't think she's 18,'" Cher recounted while promoting "Cher: Part One: The Memoir," on "CBS Sunday Morning." "So I said, 'OK, I'm not 18 but next month is my birthday' — which was true — 'and I'm going to be 18.'" Unsurprisingly, her mother was livid once she found out. 

As the legendary singer hilariously quipped, "My mom told him she was gonna put him in jail." Unfortunately, their uncomfortable age gap appears to have contributed to the turmoil Cher suffered at the hands of Sonny during their marriage.

Thanks to their incredible onscreen chemistry, Sonny Bono and Cher's relationship seemed like the '60s equivalent of relationship goals. In reality, though, he was cheating on her with his secretary while she navigated miscarriages. Cher recalled being 21 and uncovering the affair after she heard them "rustling and whispering" downstairs. "At that point I knew something was wrong, but kept walking back toward our bedroom, when I saw the shadowy figures of Sonny helping his new assistant out the front door," she wrote in "Cher: Part One: The Memoir." "It was such a f**king cliché. It broke my heart, but you've got to give him an A for effort." 

Despite Sonny's infidelity, Cher legally wed him just a couple of years later. Sadly, it introduced new challenges into the "If I Could Turn Back Time" hitmaker's life, chiefly because of Sonny's controlling nature, which kept Cher isolated from her loved ones. She even considered jumping off her balcony before realizing she didn't have to take such drastic measures. "I can just leave him," the iconic singer acknowledged in her memoir. Unfortunately, record executive David Geffen, whom Cher had started dating before things were finalized with Sonny, informed her that her husband had set up her contracts so that he benefitted almost entirely from their earnings. 

"He called me up after reading it and said, 'Sweetheart, this contract is involuntary servitude,'" she shared. "You work for Sonny. You have no rights, no vote, no money, nothing." Around 95 percent of the company belonged to Sonny, while his lawyer was in control of the remainder. Despite this betrayal, Sonny and Cher reunited again to host "The Sonny & Cher Show," which was a huge hit.