Cher’s family tree: The superstar's relatives include Sonny Bono, Gregg Allman — and yes, Julie Andrews

Kathleen PerriconeWed, April 22, 2026 at 5:36 AM UTC

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Cher with Sonny Bono and Chaz in 1970; Cher and Gregg Allman in 1977Credit: Max B. Miller/Fotos International/Getty; Ron Galella/gettyKey Points -

Cher was married to entertainer-turned-politician Sonny Bono and rocker Gregg Allman.

She had children with both husbands: Chaz Bono, who transitioned from female to male as an adult, and Elijah Blue Allman.

In 2025, Cher learned that Elijah had fathered a child in 2010 with the step-granddaughter of Julie Andrews.

Cher’s family tree is rooted in Hollywood, with branches that extend to singer-politician Sonny Bono, rocker Gregg Allman, and even Dame Julie Andrews.

The 79-year-old has had a storied life as an entertainer, spanning music, television, and film, and is one Tony shy of an EGOT.

Along the way, her family members have also had their moments in the spotlight.

Mother: Georgia Holt

Cher with her mother Georgia Holt in 2010Credit: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Cher was born Cheryl Sarkisian, the only daughter of club singer Georgia Holt and John Sarkisian, a truck driver in Southern California. The couple divorced in 1947 when their daughter was only 10 months old, and Cher rarely saw her father during her childhood.

Holt remarried and divorced six more times, including a second marriage to Sarkisian in the 1960s. With each new stepfather, Cher moved along with her mother, from California to Texas and New York before ultimately returning to Los Angeles, where Holt pursued an acting career and scored bit parts on I Love Lucy and The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet.

Because of these early struggles, Holt gave her daughter a piece of advice, which Cher famously shared with Jane Pauley in 1996: “My mom said to me, ‘You know sweetheart, you should settle down and marry a rich man.’ And I said, 'Mom, I am a rich man.'"

Holt was the subject of the 2013 documentary that aired on Lifetime called Dear Mom, Love Cher, which featured interviews with her famous daughter and grandchildren, Chaz Bono and Elijah Blue Allman. Also that year, the 85-year-old released an album, Honky Tonk Woman, which includes a duet with Cher, "I'm Just Your Yesterday."

Holt died in 2022 at age 96, following a bout with pneumonia, which Cher announced on social media.

Half-sister: Georganne LaPiere

In 1951, 5-year-old Cher became a big sister when her mother had a baby, a daughter named Georganne, with third husband John Southall, an actor. The marriage was over by 1955, when the couple made headlines after Southall took a butcher knife to a convertible loaned to his estranged wife by actor William Meader.

Six years later, Cher and Georganne were adopted by Holt’s fourth husband, bank manager Gilbert LaPiere.

Georganne followed in her sister’s footsteps, making her television debut in 1972 on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Over the next two decades, she acted in some of the most popular shows of the time: General Hospital, The Love Boat, Welcome Back, Kotter, Happy Days, and T.J. Hooker.

Sonny Bono and Cher in 1966Credit: Ivan Keeman/Redferns via GettyFirst husband: Sonny Bono

At the age of 16, Cher was already performing at clubs on Hollywood’s famed Sunset Strip, where she befriended songwriter Sonny Bono, who was working for record producer Phil Spector. Through that connection, Cher landed several gigs as a backing vocalist, including on the 1963 hit "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes.

The following year, her friendship with Bono blossomed into romance when the two recorded their first duet, “The Letter” — and that October, they eloped in Tijuana, Mexico.

The newlyweds scored their greatest hit in 1965 with “I Got You Babe,” which hit No. 1 on the music charts. Beyond their music, Sonny and Cher became international fashion idols, as teens her stick-straight hair and his fur vests.

Chastity (now Chaz), Sonny Bono, and Cher in 1973Credit: Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Getty

In 1969, the duo became a trio when Cher gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Chastity in honor of the film they were making at the time of her conception (Chastity, now known as Chaz, transitioned from female to male in 2009). Chastity, a romantic drama Bono wrote and produced as a starring vehicle for Cher, was a box-office bomb that put them deep into debt.

Musically, it was just as shaky for the counterculture couple, as their songs also fell out of popularity by the end of the decade. They bounced back on TV in 1971 with The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, a variety show that featured Carol Burnett, George Burns, the Supremes, Dick Clark, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

After four seasons, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour was canceled when Sonny and Cher ended their marriage. Despite a contentious divorce, the two reunited on television for The Sonny and Cher Show in 1976.

Bono shifted from entertainment to politics in 1988, when he was elected the mayor of Palm Springs, Calif. After a failed bid for the U.S. Senate in 1992, he successfully won the Republican nomination to represent California’s 44th congressional district (South Los Angeles). Bono was reelected in 1996, but died halfway through his second term. On Jan. 5, 1998, the 62-year-old crashed into a tree while skiing in Lake Tahoe and was killed instantly, leaving behind his widow, Mary, and their two young children.

Sonny Bono and Cher in 1981Credit: Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty

Cher had remained good friends with her ex, and when she heard the tragic news, "I got completely hysterical," she recalled to PEOPLE in 2004. "I fell down on the floor. Everything was awful. I got on a plane and flew straight to Palm Springs, and everybody in his life was there."

Eldest child: Chaz Bono

In her divorce from Sonny, Cher won custody of their child, then known as Chastity. At the age of 18, after graduating from the esteemed LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in New York, Chastity came out as a lesbian to family. Despite Cher being a gay icon, she initially wasn’t accepting and kicked the teen out of the house.

"She freaked out for about a week and then called me up to apologize," Chaz recalled on The Joy Behar Show in 2011.

Cher and Chaz Bono in 2017 in Washington, D.CCredit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Cher was much more supportive when Chaz decided to transition from female to male, which was documented in the 2011 film Becoming Chaz. Privately, however, the singer struggled with the change.

"It took me a minute," she confessed to the Los Angeles Times in 2023, "because you’ve been with a child for 40 years, and then all of a sudden… but you know what? Chaz was so happy!"

In 2017, Chaz reconnected with Shara Blue Mathes, a woman he met in the late 1980s when the two were both studying acting in New York. After nine years of dating, the couple made it official in March 2026, with Cher seated in the front row.

"I first met Shara more than 40 years ago when we were just teenagers," Chaz told PEOPLE. "I think it’s safe to say that not many grooms ultimately end up marrying the very first girl they ever kissed so many years later."

Cher and Gregg Allman in 1978Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/GettySecond Husband: Gregg Allman

Four days after finalizing her divorce from Sonny Bono, Cher married rocker Gregg Allman, her boyfriend of five months, in Las Vegas on June 30, 1975.

"There was nothing romantic about our wedding day," she wrote in 2024’s Cher: The Memoir, Part One.

Nine days later, they split as the Allman Brothers Band singer struggled with heroin addiction. Within a month, the newlyweds reconciled and Cher became pregnant. When she told her husband, however, he initially didn’t believe the news and avoided her altogether, she revealed in her memoir. At the time, Cher was still on television with her ex-husband and Allman rejected the public perception that they were in a love triangle with Bono.

She realized how the Georgia-based rocker felt when she discovered a letter he had written, in which he weighed his options.

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"I have two choices — go back to Macon and be heartbroken and lonely, or stay here and be made a fool of, the latter of which I just can’t do because I’m a man, and a damn good one," Allman wrote.

Gregg (center) with the Allman Brothers Band in 1970Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

They stayed together, and in July 1976 the couple welcomed their son, Elijah Blue Allman. It was a short-lived bliss, as Cher filed for divorce a second time in March 1977. But once again, she changed her mind.

As they worked on their marriage, the couple also collaborated musically: Two the Hard Way, a pop-rock album released in November 1977. Despite it being a critical and commercial failure, Cher and Allman embarked on a world tour that was ultimately the final straw. In December, she filed for divorce for the very last time.

"Nobody ever made me feel as happy as Gregory did," Cher told PEOPLE in 1978. "God, he’s wonderful. I don’t understand why he can’t see it. He’s the kindest, most gentle, loving husband and father. But then, he forgets and everything goes to s---."

Allman received a liver transplant in 2010 after suffering from hepatitis C. Two years later, he battled cancer. In 2017, the 69-year-old died in his sleep at home in Georgia. Cher was among the mourners at the funeral, which was also attended by former president Jimmy Carter.

Reflecting on her "intense" relationship with Allman in 2018, Cher told the Daily Mail, "It's hard to have a marriage with someone who's doing drugs. Drugs and I were just never meant to be together. I thought it was stupid and still do. I saw too many people where it ruined their lives. It ruined Gregory's life."

Cher with son Elijah Blue Allman in 1977Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via GettySon: Elijah Blue Allman

Cher and Gregg Allman's son, Elijah Blue, inherited their musical talents, as well as his father’s addictions. He was only 11 when he began experimenting with marijuana and ecstasy, before turning to harder drugs like heroin.

“I [was] just looking to escape all the things in my past,” Elijah confessed to Entertainment Tonight in 2014. “[Heroin] kind of saved me… If I didn't have that at that point, I don't know what I would have done.”

It was his mother’s boyfriend, KISS singer Gene Simmons, who gave Elijah his first guitar at the age of 13. A decade later, he appeared with Cher’s band in the music video for her 1989 song, "If I Could Turn Back Time." After auditioning to perform with Nine Inch Nails, but being passed over, Elijah started his own band, Deadsy, which released three albums before disbanding in 2007.

The self-professed "black sheep" of the family, he’s had periods of estrangement from his famous mother.

"He and I have such a bizarre relationship," she admitted during a 2004 appearance on Dr. Phil. "We’ve had so many strange moments. I don’t really understand him. Somehow Elijah and I kind of talk through osmosis."

In 2013, when he married fellow rocker Marieangela King, British singer for the band King, Elijah didn't invite his mother to the wedding.

Their relationship took an even stranger turn when Elijah and King separated in 2021. A year later, as they were attempting to reconcile, King accused her estranged mother-in-law of hiring men to abduct 46-year-old Elijah from a New York hotel where they were staying. She also alleged in 2022 legal documents that she couldn’t "see or speak" to Elijah, who was "currently in lockdown" at an undisclosed treatment facility.

Elijah Blue Allman and Cher in 2002Credit: SGranitz/WireImage

In 2023, Cher filed for conservatorship of Elijah, but dropped her petition the following year.

"This outcome allows the parties to focus on healing and rebuilding their family bond," his attorneys told Entertainment Weekly at the time.

But in February 2026, after Elijah was arrested in back-to-back incidents on charges including disorderly conduct, burglary, and criminal mischief, Cher again sought a conservatorship for her "gravely disabled" son, claiming, "his drug dependency is at its worst."

The document claims Elijah has "no concept of money," alleging that he spends any he gets "immediately" and "almost exclusively" on "drugs, expensive hotels, and limousine transportation."

At the time of Cher's petition in March 2026, her son was being held at a psychiatric hospital in New Hampshire, where he was arrested, "in an attempt to restore him to competency to face criminal charges." A hearing regarding the conservatorship is scheduled for April 24.

Julie Andrews (right) with her husband Blake Edwards and step-daughter Jennifer EdwardsCredit: L. Cohen/WireImageGranddaughter: Ever

Out of the grave situation with Elijah came some good news when Cher discovered he had fathered a child back in 2010, making her a grandmother. But even more fascinating is who the 15-year-old named Ever calls her great-grandmother: Mary Poppins Oscar winner Julie Andrews.

Ever is the daughter Kayti Edwards and granddaughter of Jennifer Edwards, who is the child of the late Pink Panther filmmaker Blake Edwards and his first wife, actress Patricia Edwards. Blake was later married to Sound of Music star Andrews for 41 years until his death.

Kayti revealed the family secret in an April 2026 interview with The Sun, detailing everything from how Cher reacted to the news to her first meeting with her granddaughter.

According to Kayti, Elijah “blurted out” that he had a child following a drug overdose in 2021, starting the rumor in the family. In June 2025, Cher reached out to Kayti "and asked if it was true, so I had to confess... When she heard the news, she was speechless.”

Three months later, they all met for the first time when Cher invited Ever and Kayti to her home in Malibu. That Christmas, she sent her granddaughter a present. Since then, the two have exchanged phone calls and more gifts as they make up for lost time.

Kayti EdwardsCredit: facebook

When it comes to Elijah, as Cher seeks to get her son the help he needs she’s “also very protective of Ever and the family dynamic,” adds Kayti, who talked about her relationship with her famous step-grandmother.

“I craved the ideal of grandma baking cookies in the kitchen with me, but it wasn't like that,” she told The Sun. "We had cooks and were raised by nannies. To talk to my grandma, I had to call her assistant.”

Kayti, who said she also dated Matthew Perry and Dax Shepard, publicly defied her grandparents as an adult. In 2001, she posed nude in Hustler for $10,000.

"If Julie and my grandfather had wanted to pay off my student loans, I wouldn’t have done it," she said.

CNN's Larry King confronted Andrews about her granddaughter’s Mary Poppins-themed pictorial during a live interview later that year.

"I was more sad than angry," the actress confessed. "I mean, she's 25-years-old. She's old enough to make up her own mind… I think Blake was more mad than I was."

on Entertainment Weekly

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