The Oscar-winning singer and actress, who many consider an icon of the LGBTQ community, described the journey she made as a mother, since Bono, then known as Chastity, first came out as a lesbian.
“It was very different from me, at first, having a problem with Chaz being gay, and he disappeared like that,” Cher said, recalling her initial reaction in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “Then we talked about (if Bono was) transgender for many years. And (he) said, ‘No, I don’t want to (transition). And he went and said, “Okay, I want to do this.”
Cher and Chaz Bono Credit: Jason LaVeris / FilmMagic / Getty Images
“But it wasn’t easy,” he admitted. “I remember calling and the old voice message (…) was on the phone, and that was very difficult.
“But don’t really miss them. They just have a different shape,” he said. Bono, an actor and the first transgender person to appear in “Dancing with the Stars,” is now “so incredibly happy,” he added.
Cher discusses gender, politics and her return to leadership
Cher, now 74, gained fame in a musical duo alongside her then-husband and Bono’s father, Sonny. He has long had a loyal LGBTQ fan base and traces his affinity with the LGBTQ community to a childhood memory, saying that “at 9, I knew it.”
“One day I came home and there were these two men in my living room with my mom and my aunt. They were doing their hair and talking, and I thought, ‘Why have we never had these kind of guys? ? Because these guys are the funniest.
“That was my (introduction to) the gay world,” he said, adding that “homosexuals don’t feel like they fit in and I never felt like they fit.”
Speaking of politics
Cher arrives in Pakistan to celebrate the march of Kaavan, called “the loneliest elephant in the world” Credit: SOHAIL SHAHZAD / EPA-EFE / Shutterstoc
The star then offered his views on President-elect Joe Biden, whom he has known for almost 15 years.
“I love him, I love him,” he said. “And I’m sorry they try to tie him up so he can’t do anything, because he’s such a great man (with a heart) fantastic. He wants to do so many things and they’re all good.
He compared Biden to former President Jimmy Carter, saying they both want to “help the American people.”
“When Joe says it, I think by hook or twist, he’ll do it,” he said.
Cher performs during a campaign rally by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden Credit: ARIANA DREHSLER / AFP / Getty Images
Cher also revealed that he is directing again for the first time in more than two decades. While keeping an eye on the details of her new business, she teased that “it has something to do with ‘The Rocky Horror Show’.”
It will be Cher’s first effort in directing since 1996, “If These Walls Could Talk,” a television-made film that tells the story of three women’s abortion experiences in different periods of America. of the postwar period.
“I’m very excited,” Cher said, adding that “I kept telling them to improve someone … (because) I’ve only directed one thing.
“But they keep telling me I’m the right person.”
Meanwhile, he’s working on a new album and his voice can be as loud as ever.
My doctor said he was looking at my (vocal) strings and then he said, ‘I want to show you something.’ So he pulled out some strings and said, ‘Okay, these are your strings and they’re laces of 25- and 27-year-old girls, ”he said.
“But it could be my last album because you never know when (your voice) will just go.”