Cher dropped a bombshell about her mother’s life in her memoir Cher: The Memoir, Part One.
Georgia Holt, who died in 2022 at the age of 96, left her fourth husband, Joseph Harper Collins, because he was “too wild in the bedroom.”
Cher, 78, recalled that her mother met the real estate magnate in the summer of 1957 at a party and became engaged shortly after.
Cher was nine years old at the time and after her mother and Collins married, she and her sister Georganne moved into her new stepfather’s house in Beverly Hills.
“All the stress disappeared from his life because he didn’t have to worry about money or work or putting food on the table,” she said. “Once we moved into Joe’s house, she became a completely different person, happy and carefree.”
However, wedded bliss didn’t last long because “Joe turned too far the other way for my mother,” Cher wrote. “He was a party animal who liked to drink and was too wild in the bedroom.”
Cher dropped a bombshell about her mother’s life in her memoir Cher: The Memoir, Part One. Pictured here on November 8, 2010.
Cher wrote that Collins wanted to be “more sexually experimental and involve other women,” but that was something her “naive” mother “couldn’t deal with.”
“You know I love you, Joe, but I can’t do that,” the singer said her mother told Collins at the time.
“They tried to work it out for a long time, since neither Joe nor my mother wanted to face the end of their marriage, but the fantasy was over,” Cher wrote, revealing that the marriage didn’t even last a year.
But there was no bad blood between her mother, Collins or Cher and her sister.
As part of the divorce settlement, he paid rent on a house where the three women would live for six months to give Georgia time to recover.
“Joe was a class act,” Cher wrote fondly.
Georgia remarried and throughout her life was married seven times to six different men.
The I’ve Got You Babe singer also opened up about her marriage to Sonny Bono on her album, revealing that he blamed her for cheating on her.
Georgia Holt, who died in 2022 at the age of 96, left her fourth husband, Joseph Harper Collins, because he was “too wild in the bedroom.” Seen here on December 31, 1985.
Cher, 78, recalled that her mother met the real estate magnate in the summer of 1957 at a party and became engaged shortly after. Seen here on April 30, 2013.
However, marital happiness did not last long because “he was a party animal who liked to drink and was too wild in the bedroom.” Cher seen here with her mother and sister Georganne in 2013.
Cher wrote that Collins wanted to be “more sexually experimental and involve other women,” but that was something her “naive” mother “couldn’t deal with.” Seen here in 1980.
Their marriage turned sour after he blamed her because she refused to have sex with him whenever he wanted, she claims in her new memoir.
She was recovering from her third miscarriage when she discovered he was sleeping and he told her, “I wouldn’t have to look outside our marriage if I was sexually satisfied,” she says.
The legendary singer also describes her ex-husband as controlling and “Machiavellian.”
Bono took his manipulation so far that he was banned from seeing his friends, could only leave the house to go shopping, and couldn’t even wear perfume because the singer-turned-politician didn’t like the smell.
“There was something inside him that I could never understand, something that took him from being a fabulous, fun guy to being someone who would take everything away from me,” Cher reflects in her book.
“For years, I’ve racked my brain wondering how he could have done what he did, and I still can’t get over it to this day.”
She was only 16 years old when she met Sonny in 1962 in a Los Angeles coffee shop. He was 27 years old and she wrote that she admired him in those early days, even though he said upon meeting him that he was not attracted to her.
As their relationship progressed, he made her give up her hobbies and passions, such as going dancing and playing softball with her family and friends, which left her “devastated.” Her explanation for this was that she “didn’t have time to mess around with games.”