Inside Cher's Troubled Relationship With Her Biological Father And What Actually Happened To Him

Highlights

• Cher's relationship with her father was difficult, to the point where he sued her for $4 million for defamation.
• Meeting her father helped Cher understand herself better.
• Cher's biological father passed away in 1985, but she had a close relationship with her adopted father.

From the outside looking in, it certainly looks like Cher has led an incredibly charmed life. A legitimate music and Hollywood legend, it has often appeared like everything Cher touches turns to gold. In reality, however, Cher has dealt with a lot of strife in her personal life, to say the least.

Tragically for Cher, many of the singer's fans know that she has had a difficult relationship with her son Elijah. On the other hand, many of Cher's followers don't realize that her relationship with her biological father was extremely difficult for her.

Cher's Father Once Sued Her For $4 Million

In the world, there are far too many people whose relationships with their parents are so toxic they cut them off. As unfortunate as that is, it is remarkable that not only did Cher not get along with her father, but her dad actually sued her and two magazines for $4 million in 1975.

According to a newspaper article from that time, Cher's father sued his famous daughter for defamation. According to the lawsuit filed against the famous singer, she had been telling the world that her father was a bad guy.

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"John Sarkisian, father of singer Cher Bono, sued his daughter for $4 million Monday, demanding she stop telling people he is a criminal. Sarkisian brought suit in superior court against Cher, Time, and People magazines for remarks attributed to her in magazine articles in which she described her father as 'a compulsive gambler and heri*n addict.'"

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The article continued, "Sarkisian, long separated from Cher's mother, conceded he had been arrested for narcotics and bad check offenses years ago, but he said these are no 'past and stale private facts.'"

The article concluded, "Although his daughter was quoted as saying 'Whatever he's doing, it's probably illegal,' he said he had in fact lived 'an exemplary, virtuous and honorable life for the past nine years.' Sarkisian asked for $4 million and a court order requiring Cher to stop talking about him."

While there aren't any articles that reveal how that lawsuit played out, the fact that Cher's father sued her really says it all. Years before that, however, Cher's relationship with her father started on a much more complicated note.

According to a Showbiz Cheat Sheet article, Cher met her father when she was already eleven years old.

“One night, when I was eleven years old, my mother asked me out of nowhere, ‘Would you like to meet your father?'”

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Even though Cher told her mom, "Sure" in response to that question, she once revealed that she didn't have a "burning desire" to meet her dad. Once Cher and her father did meet, the singer had mixed feelings. On the one hand, Cher says meeting her dad helped her understand herself better.

“My father was Armenian. He was about two inches taller than my mother, and well built. He seemed strong. He had curly black hair and dark, slanty eyes like mine and big fluffy eyebrows. He looked a lot like me, and I thought once again… Now I understand. This is where I came from. I knew then why I looked the way I looked.”

On the other hand, Cher said that her father was "standoffish" during their first meeting. Perhaps the fact that Cher's father was emotionally distant is why the singer walked away from their interaction feeling like she couldn't trust her dad.

In 2023, Cher filed legal paperwork to gain control over her son's money . In December of that year, Cher filed to immediately place her son Elijah Blue Allman in a conservatorship . In January 2024, the court declined to immediately give Cher control over her son's money However, the ultimate fate of the legal matter was unclear.

“There was something that kept me from buying the whole package. I really did want to like him, but he was a stranger. He was just a man who’d walked into our house with my smile.”

What Happened To Cher's Father?

One decade after Cher's father sued her, he died in 1985, according to an article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel. According to that same report, John Sarkisian was still a relatively young man when he passed away and his life seemed to have changed.

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"John Paul Sarkisian,father of actress-singer Cher, died Monday in Fresno. He was 58. The Oakland native was a horse breeder for Somerset Farms in Santa Ynez and moved to Fresno three years ago."

After Cher's biological father passed away in 1985, the legendary singer still had a person in her life who filled that role. In 2012, Cher's adopted father, Gilbert LaPiere, passed away, according to Express.

That article also revealed two things about what LaPiere was going through at the end of his life. First off, LaPiere had been going through some health struggles in the lead-up to his passing. Secondly, LaPiere and Cher remained close even after his marriage to the singer's mother ended.

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"Gilbert LaPiere, who adopted the singer after marrying her mother Georgia, passed away in Oklahoma City on Tuesday (07Feb12) at the age of 88. LaPiere recently suffered a heart attack and also fractured his hip, according to the Associated Press. His daughter Verna Bullock insists her father remained close to Cher following his split from her mother."