Why Cher Typically Ends Up In Age-Gap Romances

Cher is truly a timeless beauty, so it's no surprise she has a long list of former lovers. In particular, the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee is known for her many age gap relationships, some of which have featured a staggering number of years between Cher and her partner. For example, she and her younger boyfriend Alexander Edwards have a 40-year age gap, putting them several generations apart. Their romance has had plenty of ups and downs, and her many other failed age gap unions may make some wonder why she continues to embrace these kinds of partnerships

However, it appears that Cher's tendency toward dating younger men may have partially arisen out of necessity: in an appearance on "The Jennifer Hudson Show," Cher revealed that it is challenging to connect with men closer to her age because they are hesitant to make the first move. As she described: "The reason I got with young men is because men my age are older, well, now they're all dead, but before they were always terrified to approach me, and younger men were the only ones [who would]." Regardless of the reason, one thing is for sure: age gap relationships are a long-standing routine in the "Believe" singer's life. 

Age gap relationships aren't for everyone, but Cher has seemed perfectly at home in these situations since the beginning of her career. For example, when it comes to celebrity couples with big age differences, it's hard to ever forget about the iconic pairing of Cher and Sonny Bono, and their union remains one of the most noteworthy relationships in the singer's dating history. However, although she has come to almost exclusively be the older partner in her relationships, Cher's first marriage was a very opposite situation. When Cher met Bono, she was just 16 years old; Bono was 28. They married two years later, after Cher turned 18. 

However, Bono wasn't Cher's only experience dating a much older man: before meeting her future first husband, Cher had a short-lived fling with filmmaker Warren Beatty, who was 11 years her senior. Although Beatty and Cher briefly dated after this somewhat strange first meeting, Cher told Elle that there wasn't anything official about it: "You can't call it a relationship. It was very Warren." Although she had partners closer to her own age for a time (such as second husband Gregg Allman, who was just a year older than her), Cher has definitely grown into her role as the fabulous older woman in her relationships.