LA judge rules for Cher in royalties suit against Mary Bono

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled for Cher in her lawsuit claiming Sonny Bono’s widow owes her royalties for Sonny & Cher songs, according to court papers obtained Wednesday by City News Service.

U.S. District Judge John Kronstadt determined that Cher’s decades-old divorce settlement with her then-former partner/husband in the folk-pop duo constitutes a “contractual right” to receive 50% royalties from such hits as “I Got You Babe” and “The Beat Goes On.” The judge found that Cher is owed over $400,000 in past royalties accrued since the lawsuit began.

Cher filed suit against the widow of Sonny Bono in October 2021 in Los Angeles federal court, alleging that Bono’s estate, administered by his widow, improperly tried to terminate her rights in Sonny & Cher royalties.

According to the complaint, the Bono Collection Trust claimed that its 2016 notices of termination to several music publishers also applied to Cher’s royalty rights.

Bono, 62, argued that the federal Copyright Act allows her to terminate the 50% right to royalties that Sonny Bono agreed to pay Cher when the then-couple signed their divorce settlement in 1978.

Cher, now 78, and Sonny Bono married in 1964 and began performing under the name Caesar and Cleo, before switching to Sonny & Cher. In addition to their music, the couple built their celebrity via television, starring in the 1971-74 CBS variety show, “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.”

Their career as a duo waned by the mid-1970s, though each was successful on their own — Cher in movies such as “Mask” and “Moonstruck” and Sonny Bono as a California politician.

Sonny Bono was mayor of Palm Springs from 1988-92 and a Republican congressman from 1995 until his death in a skiing accident in 1998. He was succeeded by his widow, who served until 2013.

Earlier this month, Cher and her adult son, Elijah Blue Allman, agreed to temporarily suspend his conservatorship, which the pop icon filed for late last year amid claims of her son’s alleged substance abuse and mental health issues.

Cher and 47-year-old Allman — her son from her marriage to late musician Gregg Allman — agreed during a private mediation to pause all legal proceedings, according to court documents.