These Rare Photos Of Cher Reveal A Whole New Side To The Star

Cher didn't always go by one name alone. Her father, a truck driver who struggled with addiction, abandoned his young daughter and her mother in 1947, the year she turned one. Despite this setback, Cher's mother was determined to give herself and her daughter a life after love.

At the start of her career, Cher was one-half of a double-act with her then-husband, Sonny Bono. Here, they can be seen fixing up their hair in a bathroom. Cher may not have been a megastar just yet, but her iconic look was starting to take shape. Check out that flawless eyeliner. 

Cher and Sonny had been married for about two years when this photograph was snapped — or they’d had a commitment ceremony, at least. They wouldn’t actually be legally married until 1969. All Cher fans know that the relationship went off the rails before too long, but you couldn’t have predicted that looking at this sweet moment.

This photo is the epitome of ’60s cool. Cher and Sonny relax with their dog on a couple of colorful cars, enjoying the clear, blue sky and bright sunshine. It was 1965, the year that Sonny and Cher hit it big with the song “I Got You Babe,” and there would be many more photographs like this one to come.

In this photo, Cher is reading Hit Parader, a music mag that was on the shelves from 1942 to 2008. The pages of this edition were filled with stories on John Lennon, Barbra Streisand, and The Supremes. Eventually, Cher would be as much of a household name as any of them — even without Sonny by her side.

Here, Cher is performing a sound check at the Hollywood Bowl. It was just before a concert that saw her and Sonny get up on stage alongside The Righteous Brothers. She’s dressed in a magnificent outfit that seems to be made entirely out of yellow leather — an early glimpse at her favored aesthetic of wild, wacky designs.

Chimpanzees don’t really make for good co-stars, but Cher posed snuggling up to a young one named Toto to publicize her and Sonny’s movie, Good Times. As it turned out, Good Times would be the only film she and her husband would make together. It also kick-started William Friedkin’s career as a director. You know, the guy who went on to make The Exorcist. 

Cher loves dogs. And she loves cats, too. In 2016 she even described herself on Twitter as “a dog person who has cats.” The cutie with her in this photo was one of her pets, but she’s continued to look after dogs in the decades since this picture was taken. As if we need more reasons to love Cher!

This striking picture looks like it could be a still from a film, but it was snapped in 1968 while Cher was freshening up her appearance backstage. The star’s expression suggests she has a lot on her mind, and she probably did. It wasn’t long after this that Sonny and Cher’s fame appeared to be fading, and they were running into financial difficulties.

Here, Cher is having a breather from working on her album 3614 Jackson Highway, sprawling out at the Muscle Shoals Recording Studios, Alabama. You can understand why she might have been completely exhausted, though. She had given birth to her son, Chaz Bono, just two months earlier.

The 1970s brought more fame and fortune for Cher — and more fabulous dresses, of course. The star had several hit songs, and she and Sonny embarked on a new TV career with The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Unfortunately, though, it was also in this decade that the pair’s marriage would start to disintegrate.

Here we see the beginning of one of Cher’s biggest contributions to the fashion world: headdresses! This one appears to be a light-colored beaded number — not what you’d traditionally wear while driving a car, of course. But that’s Cher for you. From this moment on, her headgear would only get bigger and more elaborate. 

This picture, taken on the opening night of the movie Last Tango in Paris, shows Cher smiling away with her half-sister, Georganne LaPiere Bartylak. And you may recognize Georganne. She was an actress for a good few decades and played Heather Grant Webber in General Hospital during the ’70s.

Here’s Cher as you may never have seen her before. She’s in character as Laverne Lashinski, the tackily dressed but inexplicably sexy character from The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Laverne proved to be so popular that Cher played her again on stage the following decade.

Cher was back wearing a fabulous headpiece for the Grammys in 1974. It was butterfly-shaped, sparkling, and incredibly eye-catching. But that wasn’t the only reason she was all anyone could talk about that night. The event was the first major do where she’d taken new boyfriend David Geffen as a plus one. 

By 1977 Cher had married and then hastily divorced Gregg Allman, the father of her second child. And that year she was snapped at New York’s Studio 54 nightclub dancing the night away with an unknown man. She appeared to be enjoying herself, but her romantic troubles were far from over.

The relationship between Cher and Gregg Allman was turbulent, to say the least. She actually divorced him a mere nine days after marrying him, then married him again… then divorced him again. She vented to People magazine in 1978, “If someone lies to you 10 times, you start becoming numb to whatever they say, but it took me an awful long time.”

This pic was snapped as Cher departed Los Angeles International Airport to do a tour alongside Sonny Bono. Yep, even though the pair were divorced by then, there was still a big audience for them as a couple. Part of the contract Cher had signed as Sonny’s wife stated the singer had to do shows with him whether she wanted to or not. 

Whenever Cher is dressed in regular clothes and isn’t wearing her trademark eyeliner, she almost looks like an entirely different person. In this shot, taken at Los Angeles’ El Privado Club, Cher is sporting a fancy hat and big earrings, but otherwise, there’s little to signify that it’s really her posing on that motorbike.

This picture from October 1977 shows Cher in her Beverly Hills home, lounging on a luxurious-looking sofa ready to be photographed. She’s very dressed down by Cher standards, wearing just a tank top, pants, and minimal jewelry. But what on earth are those little fluffy things attached to her jeans?

Not everyone can pull off looking glamorous in ski wear. But Cher, of course, is one of those people. Here she is in 1977 on a snowy vacation to Aspen, Colorado, with her two children. Even when hanging out in a surprisingly normal-looking hotel room, everything about her says “celebrity.” 

Cher absolutely dazzled at Billboard magazine’s 1979 Disco Convention. She wore a golden dress by Bob Mackie that made her twinkle from head to toe in beads and sequins. And yet another magnificent headpiece finished off the look. The outfit fetched an impressive $11,875 when it was auctioned off in 2010.

In 1980 Cher attended the premiere of Xanadu, an Olivia Newton-John musical fantasy on which the movie industry had placed high hopes. Alas, even Cher’s fabulous black-studded leather jacket wasn’t enough to save the night. The film flopped badly, and it even helped to bring about the infamous Golden Raspberry Awards.

After her marriage to Gregg Allman had ended, Cher dated a string of famous men. One of these was actor Val Kilmer, and apparently, things got pretty steamy between the pair. Cher told People in 1984 what it was like when they kissed. “I thought my head would shoot right off my body,” she said. “I had to catch my breath.”

But Cher’s biggest love during that era was a man named Robert Camilletti. “Rob made my heart do something weird,” she told Macleans magazine in 1989. “There’s something quite electric and thrilling about it — you only want this one person and you throw everything else out of the window.” Unfortunately, though, it didn’t last.

Cher experimented with different hair colors as the decade went on. In 1985, while attending the premiere of the film White Nights, she turned up sporting this massive, gravity-defying purple mullet. Very, very few people can pull off a look like this, and Cher is one of them.

Throughout the ’80s, Cher established herself as an actress as well as a singer. She was in the running to win an Oscar in 1984 for the film Silkwood, but it was romantic comedy Moonstruck that actually saw her take home an award — and Best Actress, too! She starred alongside Nicolas Cage in the film, which was a huge success both critically and financially.

Things were going very well indeed for Cher in 1987. There was the Oscar win, for a start. And she’d also released a new, platinum-achieving album. You may remember when the track “I Found Someone” was being played on every radio! This would also be the last year that she would sing alongside Sonny Bono.

In this shot, Cher is enjoying a picnic with her mom, Georgia Holt. Believe it or not, but Georgia is still alive at the time of writing, and she doesn’t even look all that different! In 2021 Cher posted a picture of her at 95 years old, and she looked staggeringly young for her age. Hopefully, Cher will follow in her mom’s footsteps.

When Cher picked up her Oscar for Moonstruck, she did it in style. The star wore a very daring see-through black dress, designed by her old favorite Bob Mackie. It showed off her midriff, legs, and tattoo. The look went down in history — not just as one of Cher’s most iconic outfits, but as one of the most iconic outfits ever seen at the Oscars.

This photo of a photo shows Cher at the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards event in 1993, smiling alongside actor Steven Seagal. In 2018 a fan reposted an image from the event on Twitter, causing Cher to reply with the words, “I was quite stunning once.” But of course, she still is. 

Did you know that Cher loves motorcycles? She’s actually been into them ever since she was a teenager. This picture from December 1994 shows her using her hobby for a good cause, riding her Harley at the Rejoice on Rodeo parade to raise money for the Camp Ronald McDonald organization.

Cher is a big believer in charity and philanthropy. This pic from the winter of 1994 shows her at the fifth annual Fire and Ice Ball, which was raising money for the UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program. Cher actually has her own charitable organization now, which she uses to donate to important causes.

Cher was hit with a big blow in 1998. Her ex-husband Sonny Bono unexpectedly died as the result of a skiing accident. He was just 62 years old. Despite the former couple’s ups and downs, Cher was clearly devastated by the news. She wrote and read a eulogy at the funeral, unable to hold back the tears as she did so.

Cher didn’t disappoint at the 1998 Oscars. She wore yet another see-through gown by Bob Mackie, which was, of course, topped off with another magnificent hat. It wasn’t one of her favorite looks, though. She told magazine The Hollywood Reporter in 2013, “I liked the hat and had all kinds of time to tell Bob I didn’t really like the dress, but I didn’t realize how much till I walked out the door.”

In 1998 Cher released a book titled The First Time. It’s full of stories about her life and includes snippets from her childhood, the impact of Sonny’s passing, and everything in between. She spent November 13 of that year at the Chelsea Barnes & Noble in New York, signing copies of both the book and her new album Believe.

Cher has had many hair colors over the years, but there’s no denying that this gorgeous red shade from the year 2000 was one of the most striking. She wore it while performing in Los Angeles as part of her sell-out “Do You Believe?” tour. Back in her traditional over-the-top outfits and jewels, she looked fantastic.

Cher got dressed up to the nines for the Lucy Awards in 2000. She was wearing orange sunglasses, a huge pair of earrings, a golden jacket, and sparkly jewel-embellished trousers. Though it’s not clear why she’s pulling this facial expression! She had a good night, too, sharing the Lucy Award with several other movie stars of the era.

It takes a brave woman to change their appearance completely, but that’s what Cher did for the Emmy Awards in 2000. She transformed those famous long, black locks into blonde ones — and switched her eye color from brown to blue as well. She was 54 at the time and likely an inspiration to many.

Cher can’t go anywhere without fans following her and asking for autographs. Here she is scribbling her signature on what appears to be a pile of Fed-Ex envelopes for some fans gathered in Manhattan. Oh, and she’s wearing those brightly colored shades again, too.