Cher is an undeniable powerhouse with a record-breaking career spanning over seven decades in entertainment. But before she was known worldwide as Cher, she was Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPiere—an aspiring performer with stage fright, eager to break into Hollywood. Born in 1946, the El Centro, California–native was raised primarily by her mother Georgia Holt, a model and actor. Cher’s early life was marked by poverty and abuse, but those hardships didn’t prevent her from finding stardom in the 1960s when she, alongside her husband-slash-manager Salvatore “Sonny” Bono, rose to prominence as the legendary musical duo Sonny & Cher. In the years that followed, Cher struck out on her own as a soloist, churning out number-one hits like “Believe” and “If I Could Turn Back Time” before taking on big-screen roles that would land her two Oscar nominations and one win.
In her 2024 tell-all, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, the performer details her tumultuous upbringing, the beginnings of her prolific career, and her leap into acting. Throughout all her time in the spotlight, she’s built an expansive real estate portfolio in the Golden State. For Cher, each property is an opportunity to showcase her mastery of total reinvention, and her philosophy as an artist carries over into her interiors tastes, where she intentionally makes no two properties the same. “I don’t know where people go to get that rule, ‘Thou shalt be one thing and one thing only for thy entire life,’” she told AD in 1989. To tide you over until Cher: The Memoir, Part Two drops this November, we rounded up some snapshots of the star’s life away from the spotlight in the ’60s and ’70s.
