Following her protracted court battle over royalties, Cher is now responsible for more than one million dollars in top-ranked legal representation fees.
After fighting Mary Bono, the widow of Cher’s ex-husband Sonny Bono, who stopped royalty payments, the legendary singer, hoped to recoup her $1,023,605 legal bills.
Including their biggest hit, ‘I Got You Babe,’ Cher’s 1978 divorce settlement with Sonny had previously entitled his former spouse to a permanent 50% cut of any publishing revenue from songs written before their split.
Claiming she had “termination right,” Mary discontinued the 50-50 royalty payments in 2021, some 23 years after Sonny’s 1998 tragic death in a skiing accident.
Following years of legalize, in December of 2025, a judge determined the now 80-year old songstress should continue to be entitled to the payments – subsequent to which Cher attempted to retrieve the court-related money she’d spent, arguing that the defendant had “dragged” proceedings out unnecessarily by “repeatedly and frivolously” creating “unreasonable” new arguments.
It was decided this week by Judge John A. Kronstadt, that the musician (born Cheryl Sarkisian) was ineligible to claim back her legal costs as they were incurred over a contract-law dispute as opposed to a copyright issue, writing “It has been determined that this action arises under California contract law.” “In light of the foregoing, because (the Copyright Act) does not apply to the matter at issue, plaintiff’s motion is denied.”
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: David Carroll