When Cher’s marriage to Sonny Bono soured, she turned to another icon for help.
In her new book, “Cher: The Memoir, Part One,” Cher writes that she reached out to Lucille Ball, who had had similar problems in her marriage to her “I Love Lucy” co-star Desi Arnaz.
“I called Lucille Ball to ask for her advice,” she writes.
“I told her, ‘Lucy, I want to leave Sonny and you’re the only one I know that’s ever been in this same situation. What should I do?’ Lucy and her husband had also become famous working together as stars on TV. And he was a huge womanizer too. Then Lucy had left him. She told me, ‘F— him, you’re the one with the talent.’”
Cher, 78, and Bono eventually divorced in 1975. Bono died in a skiing accident in 1998.
You may be wondering how exactly Ball and Cher even knew each other. Cher writes she had known the legendary sitcom star since she was little and that they attended an election results party for the 1972 presidential election hosted by Jack Benny, which Cher writes she didn’t want to attend.
“Lucille was clearly bored too, because as the votes started coming in she began making wisecracks about the ‘windbags’ giving commentary on what each update meant,” Cher writes in her book, which was released Nov. 19.
The “Moonstruck” star writes that Ball’s antics that night reverberated throughout the party.
“She was being so funny and irreverent. If you knew Lucy, she was a balls-to-the-wall kick-ass chick, not taking anything from anybody,” she writes. “I had known her since I was little, but this night she got me in trouble. I couldn’t help but giggle at her commentary.
“Knowing that I wasn’t supposed to only cracked me up more, and as her snide comments continued, so did my laughter, which annoyed Sonny, especially since Johnny Carson was in the front room with the Ford sisters.”
Cher recalls that Carson was so ticked off that he complained to Benny’s wife. Cher mistakenly thought Ball would be put in her place.
“Then I realized that nobody was going to say a word to her because she’d have them neutered them. Everyone was terrified of Lucy,” she writes. “I, however, was a different thing altogether. Like a naughty child, I was banished to the den.”