The Untold Truth Of Cher And Gregg Allman's Marriage

Although Cher had risen to fame alongside husband and singing partner Sonny Bono, the duo split up in 1974. As The New York Times reported, their divorce got messy when Cher accused Bono and his attorney of convincing the "Living in a House Divided" singer to sign a legal document that she didn't seem to fully understand: "a contract giving them all rights to her future earnings." It remained valid even in the event of a divorce or separation. In a lawsuit, Cher argued that they had violated the 13th Amendment by duping her into what she claimed amounted to "involuntary servitude." So Cher and Bono's divorce turned into an ugly public battle between the two beloved singers, who had first met when Cher was only 16.

"He didn't want me to grow up or have any freedom," Cher said while speaking to Parade about her ex in 2010 (Bono died in a 1998 skiing accident). "I wasn't allowed to do anything except work. We worked more than we lived." But that wasn't the only reason that Cher left. According to the "Believe" singer, fame had made Bono "a huge womanizer," and his affairs were getting out of hand. "One woman, or even five, was not enough for him," she revealed, recalling that she once asked her late ex how he juggled so many different lovers. "I was trusting and faithful with him. I'm not sure we should've ever been husband and wife."

Although Gregg Allman was smitten right away, he didn't show Cher a great time on their first date. In "My Cross to Bear," he recalled how they hopped in Cher's blue Ferrari and drove to a mutual friend's house, where Allman ended up doing heroin. Cher was left downstairs while he "nodded out" in the bathroom. When he snapped out of his drug-induced sedated state about 20 minutes later, the rocker asked her what she wanted to do next. "I want to get the f*** out of here as fast as I can," Cher replied. She later described their entire first date as "just awful," according to Josiah Howard, author of the biography "Cher: Strong Enough."

Allman worked up the nerve to call her the next day, however. "Wait, before you say anything — that was possibly the worst f***ing date in the history of mankind," he said when Cher got on the phone, per his memoir. "We might be ready for the 'Guinness Book of World Records.'" Arguing that it could only get better from there, he persuaded her to go on another date.

This time, they went disco dancing. "She had one drink, while I had my twenty-one, of course," Allman recalled. "When we got back to her place, she took me out to her rose garden, and all the roses were just starting to bloom." Cher left her beaded Bob Mackie shirt in the garden before they headed upstairs to make "some serious love."

One Sunday morning, Cher decided to pop the question. "Well, listen — Mr. Harrah, who's a good friend of mine, has sent us down his private jet. I was thinking we'd fly over to Vegas and get married," she suggested to a half-asleep Gregg Allman, according to "My Cross to Bear." "I was awake then, let me tell you!" he added.

Cher's sister was her maid of honor, per the biography "Totally uninhibited: The Life and Wild Times of Cher," and both of the singers' managers were witnesses at the spontaneous wedding, which took place at Caesar's Palace. The lovebirds tried to stay "as low profile as possible" according to Allman, despite being one of the most famous couples in America. To help them out, their team spread a rumor that the wedding of another big celebrity, "My Way" crooner Frank Sinatra, was going to take place on another floor of the hotel and casino. The press was distracted and looking for Ol' Blue Eyes, so Cher and Allman were able to get their marriage license and sneak upstairs for the ceremony.

Although Allman described the wedding itself as awkward (it didn't help that the rocker tried to correct the priest when he referred to "legal matrimony" instead of "holy matrimony"), there was one perk: the musician tried caviar for the first time and loved it so much that he had to be dragged away to get married.

As People observed in 1976, fans of the Allman Brothers Band never warmed up to Cher. Many even accused her of becoming a "Yoko" figure who broke up Gregg Allman's group, although he defended his wife against such speculation. In reality, his drug use and the band's money problems played a role in their breakup, while his testimony against their former road manager, Scooter Herring, seemingly sealed the deal, as the other band members considered Allman a "narc" for telling a courtroom that Herring had given them drugs.

"They weren't there to see the pressure," Allman complained to Rolling Stone in November 1976, revealing that the other members of the band had stopped speaking to him. "They weren't there to see the cat holding my manuscript right in my nose just daring me, just f***ing daring me, to swerve off of it just enough to get me on a perjury charge." Allman also told People that the situation was "heavy in there," claiming that his own freedom was at stake. "If I had refused to say anything, they were going to make me do a couple of years," he said, lamenting that he was "the fall guy for this whole thing."

"Gregory makes a great villain because he's taken drugs," Cher added. "They acted as if he had turned his road manager into a drug dealer when it was the other way around. People don't want to think it's happening all over the U.S., but it is." 

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

In 1976, Gregg Allman and Cher welcomed their son Elijah Blue Allman. Now an adult, Elijah is a musician, too. According to HuffPost, Kiss frontman Gene Simmons — who dated Cher in the late '70s — gave him his first guitar when he was 13 years old.

Although he followed in his parents' footsteps, Elijah has been open about how his childhood wasn't perfect. "When you go to boarding school at 7 years old, it's kind of hard to feel like you're not being shunned," he explained to ET, recalling his resentment at being sent away. "But I'm at an age where I'm making peace with it because you just have to ... it doesn't mean it's right."

Elijah also discussed how he would spend his unsupervised weekends in New York. "Me and my friends would go up to Harlem and get into all kinds of trouble," he admitted. "It's actually shocking to think about myself at like 11 years old buying drugs in Harlem. It's pretty crazy." He later became addicted to heroin, revealing during a 2006 appearance on "The Howard Stern Show" that Cher convinced him to go to rehab. He also said that he and his dad "didn't have much of a relationship" at the time. To ET, he confessed that he "didn't appreciate" his charmed life when he was younger and was meeting celebrities including Andy Warhol and Val Kilmer, who gifted him with "a human scalp," he told Stern.  

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

After releasing "Two the Hard Way," Cher and Gregg Allman went on a tour that was complicated by constant fights between their fans, as well as his drug and alcohol habits. In "My Cross to Bear," Allman described the stark difference between his crowd, who would turn up to the shows in denim clothing and backpacks, and Cher fans, who dressed in formal attire and expected a vaudeville-style show in the style of her Sonny Bono days. "It was right after that — the tuxedos against the backpacks, because I think the Allman Brothers outnumbered the Sonny and Chers — that Cher came to me, and the poor thing was just crying," he remembered, describing what would be the last night of the tour.

"I asked her what was wrong, and she told me, 'We've got to cancel the rest of the tour, because I can't stand the fighting,'" Allman continued, recalling how they decided to stop "halfway through" their planned dates. "We went home the next day, and that was the last time I ever played with her." Their marriage fell apart at the same time because of Allman's drinking, which ended up killing their relationship for good. "There was no future for us because she has that constant paranoia of (my) going back to alcohol," he later commented, according to Entertainment Weekly.

In 2017, Gregg Allman died from liver cancer at age 69. As Rolling Stone reported, the singer's family announced that he had "passed away peacefully at his home in Savannah, Georgia" after years of struggling with his health. "During that time, Gregg considered being on the road playing music with his brothers and solo band for his beloved fans, essential medicine for his soul," they wrote. "Playing music lifted him up and kept him going during the toughest of times."

The woman he had once played music alongside also paid tribute to Allman after his death. Cher tweeted that words were "impossible" after Allman died, referring to the musician by her nickname for him, "Gui Gui," and ending with his nickname for her, "Chooch." She also attended his funeral to pay her respects, and Extra published photos of her sitting beside their son Elijah at the service in Macon, Georgia. "2day we were with our beloved Gregory,tomorrow we say goodbye," Cher wrote on Twitter before the funeral, describing an "immeasurable" collective grief. "He was shy.He Was a KIND,LOVING man."