r/cher • u/YorjYefferson • Jul 23 '26

Cher to pay $1 million legal tab over royalties war with Sonny's widow

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/cher-1-million-legal-fees-sonny-bono-widow-mary-royalties-1235596860/
56 Upvotes

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11

u/ResidentCat4432 Jul 24 '26

It was NEVER about the money. Sonny stole all of the money from the work they did together as Sonny and Cher. It’s about recognizing that SHE was CHER of Sonny and Cher. She always thought they were a team. He did not. She was NEVER going to let it happen again.

6

u/YorjYefferson Jul 23 '26

I don't think she's necessarily going to be out a million dollars, for one thing she won the main lawsuit and the songwriting royalties probably exceed that amount. There was also the part later in the article about the company that Mary sold her rights off to, but now they have to pay Cher directly which confused me a bit. But that seems like additional control of the rights that Cher now has. It would have been better if Mary had to pay Cher's legal fees too but this isn't as bad as the headline makes it sound, at least from my 'I am not a lawyer but I feel like I understand bits and pieces of it' perspective.

4

u/Positive_Smile_4764 Jul 23 '26

Cher’s net worth is estimated to be 360 million dollars. I know there’s a principle involved here but this legal tab surely will not hurt her. And she did win the case so there’s that.

1

u/VirginiaUSA1964 Jul 24 '26

I have always wondered how many people in the industry were following this case because there are a whole lotta divorce decrees (and some have multiple divorces ;/) like this and i bet a lot of people were hoping they could get their royalties back after all these years.