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(NewsNation) — Cher is stuck paying her own legal fees after winning a lengthy legal battle with the widow of her ex-husband, Sonny Bono.
A federal judge ordered July 17 that the 80-year-old had to cover her own attorney’s fees from a lawsuit against Mary Bono.
The “Strong Enough” singer sued Bono in October 2021. Cher claimed Bono had attempted to terminate the singer’s rights to 50% of the rights and royalties from music created under their duo Sonny and Cher. That included the duo’s hits “I Got You Babe” and “The Beat Goes On.”
As part of Cher’s 1978 divorce settlement with Sonny, the pair agreed to split the rights and royalties to their music evenly. However, the lawsuit claimed Bono attempted to use a “wholly inapplicable statutory termination provision of the Copyright Act of 1976” to eliminate Cher’s rights entirely. Her lawsuit against Bono also aimed to stop any future attempts at terminating her rights to the music.
Cher won the lawsuit in May 2024, and Bono was ordered to pay the pop icon more than $418,000 in unpaid royalties.
After that legal victory, Cher asked the court in January 2026 to order Bono to pay $1,023,605.30 in legal fees, according to People magazine. However, the judge denied her motion, ruling that the victory was based on contract rights rather than federal copyright law. As a result, she could not recover her legal fees.
Cher was married to Sonny from 1969 to 1975 and performed with him as the iconic 60s duo Sonny & Cher. After their divorce, Sonny went into politics and became a California congressman, where he met Mary, a former congresswoman. The pair married in 1986 and were together until Sonny Bono’s tragic death during a skiing accident in 1998.
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