Cher says Sonny Bono secretly rewrote her business contracts, trapping her in ‘involuntary servitude’: ‘I had no way to make any money’

• Cher and Sonny Bono costarred on “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” when they were married in the ’70s.
• In her new memoir, Cher writes that Bono “secretly designed” her contracts so she earned nothing.
• “I was an employee of Cher Enterprises with no ownership, so I couldn’t access any of the money.”

With their hit CBS show “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour,” which premiered in 1971, husband-and-wife entertaining duo Sonny and Cher had become “the unlikely darlings of prime time.”

But behind the scenes, Cher writes in her new book, “The Memoir: Part One,” Bono had become increasingly controlling.

Bono, who was 11 years her senior, had already forbidden her from wearing perfume, playing softball with her mom, going to parties, and hanging out with her girlfriends, which she says he described as “dumb.”

By the time she was 26, Cher writes that she was trapped in a “loveless marriage” and even considered jumping from the balcony of their suite to escape the loneliness. Instead, she decided to leave him.

Cher and Bono kept up appearances for their show and even continued to share their home on weekdays. But everything changed in December 1973, when Cher began dating the music mogul David Geffen, whom she describes as “a genius in business” and “the most loving boyfriend I’d ever had.”

At one point, Geffen asked about Cher’s contract with CBS. She told him she’d never read it and didn’t know how she got paid.

Shortly after, Cher says Geffen called her with “devastating” news: “Sweetheart, this contract is involuntary servitude,” he told her. “You work for Sonny. You have no rights, no vote, no money, nothing. You’re an employee of something called ‘Cher Enterprises’ with a salary you were likely never paid and three weeks’ vacation per year. He owns 95% of the company and the rest belongs to his lawyer, Irwin Spiegel.”

“Then David started reading the contract to me, and sure enough, I couldn’t even sign a check or withdraw any money without Sonny or Irwin’s signature,” Cher writes. “I was an employee of Cher Enterprises with no ownership, so I couldn’t access any of the money I earned for the company. Beyond that, I was signed to the company and could only work with Sonny’s permission. That meant not only did I have no money, I had no way to make any money unless Sonny signed off on it.”

Cher says she remembers Bono giving her pages to sign that said “Cher Enterprises,” but she simply thought the name “sounded cool” — and never thought that Bono would betray her trust. She also assumed his lawyer was working for her as well.

“I’d worked my whole life, yet apparently I had nothing to show for it,” she writes. “I’d never for a second imagined that I needed to protect myself from Sonny, of all people, yet the contracts he’d had me sign were secretly designed to strip me of my income and the rights to my own career.”

With Geffen’s help, Cher hired her own lawyer. Cher also recalls confronting Bono about their unequal terms, even threatening to leave the show if they couldn’t spit their earnings 50-50, but he refused to draw up a new contract.

At this point, “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” was expected to be renewed for a new season. Cher had two more years left in her contract as an employee of Cher Enterprises.

So she called Fred Silverman, CBS’s head of programming, to beg for cancellation. In exchange, Cher promised not to leave CBS for another network.

It worked. “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” ended in 1974, which sparked an uproar from their devoted audience. “Season four, which had been due to start that fall, was dead in the water,” Cher writes. “I’d sacrificed the show to save myself.”

Cher and Bono filmed their final show together on January 21, 1974. One month later, Bono filed for divorce. “That was a surprise,” Cher writes.

Cher’s lawyer subsequently filed divorce paperwork of her own, officially accusing Bono of “involuntary servitude” in direct violation of the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution. She writes that this legal move “drove Sonny crazy.” The proceedings dragged on for years, Cher recalls, partially due to a messy custody dispute over their son, Chaz. Their divorce was finalized on June 27, 1975.

Cher went on to host two seasons of “Cher,” a solo variety show on CBS, in 1975 and 1976. She won an Oscar in 1988 for best actress in “Moonstruck,” a Grammy in 2000 for her hit song “Believe,” and an Emmy in 2003 for “Cher: The Farewell Tour.”