Sonny Bono Admitted to Thinking About Killing Cher During Their Tumultuous Marriage

Cher is pulling back the curtain on her deeply complicated and turbulent marriage to Sonny Bono in her memoir, Cher: The Memoir (Part One).

The 78-year-old music icon revealed that at the end of their rocky relationship, Sonny admitted he “seriously thought” of killing her—an admission that came after Cher confessed her own dark thoughts of jumping from their Las Vegas hotel balcony.

The explosive moment happened in October 1972 at the Sahara Hotel during one of their performances. Cher, desperate and unhappy, dropped a shocking bombshell, telling Sonny she wanted to sleep with Bill, the band’s guitarist. Although she didn’t mean it, she hoped it would finally get through to Sonny, whom she describes as controlling to the point of forbidding her from wearing perfume.

“The silence was deafening,” Cher writes. Sonny’s response? “How long do you think you’ll need?” She answered, “Two hours.” He walked out, leaving Cher sobbing on Bill’s shoulder.

Despite their marital split, the couple—who were the faces of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, one of TV’s top shows—continued to live together during the week to maintain their public image. But one morning at breakfast, Sonny made a chilling confession. “You know, after you went off with Bill that night at the Sahara, I seriously thought about throwing you off our balcony,” he said.

“He laughed a little at that and so did I. It was crazy that he was telling me,” Cher writes in the memoir. Sonny even elaborated, saying, “I figured I’d plead insanity like Spade Cooley and get seven years in jail before they released me. Then I’d get a book deal and my own show.”

Cher shocked him right back, admitting, “There would have been no need to push me because I was gonna jump!” The bizarre moment turned into laughter. “Within seconds we were howling. No one watching our response to what had been the darkest moment of our marriage would have understood,” Cher reflects.

Cher makes it clear in the memoir that she doesn’t believe Sonny would have actually pushed her, but acknowledges that the thought crossed his mind—as hers did about jumping.

The memoir also details the relentless infidelity in their relationship, with Cher catching Sonny with his assistant and later fleeing to her mother’s house. To her surprise, her mother already knew about Sonny’s cheating. When confronted, Sonny blamed their lack of intimacy for his straying.

Though the pair’s love story ended in 1975, it’s one filled with highs and harrowing lows. Sonny died tragically in a skiing accident in 1998, but the memories and revelations from their relationship continue to paint a complex portrait of the duo.