Cher will have to pay more than $1 million in legal fees after a protracted court battle over royalties.
The Believe singer had applied to recoup her legal bills after battling her ex-husband’s widow, Mary Bono, in court.
Cher, 80, had spent USD$1,023,605 (£764,810.01) on top-ranked legal representation as she worked to fight Mary, the widow of Cher’s ex-husband Sonny Bono, after Mary stopped royalty payments to Cher.
The singer’s 1978 divorce settlement with Sonny had previously entitled Cher to a permanent 50% cut of any publishing revenue from songs written before their split, including their monster hit, I Got You Babe.
Mary discontinued the 50-50 royalty payments in 2021, 23 years after Sonny’s 1998 death in a skiing accident, claiming she had “termination right”.
However in December 2025, a judge determined Cher should continue to be entitled to the payments – at which point Cher attempted to retrieve the money she had spent warring with Mary in court.
She argued Mary had “dragged” proceedings out unnecessarily by “repeatedly and frivolously” creating “unreasonable” new arguments.
This week, Judge John A. Kronstadt declared Cher could not claim back her legal costs as they were incurred over a contract-law dispute as opposed to a copyright issue.
“It has been determined that this action arises under California contract law,” the judge wrote.
“In light of the foregoing, because (the Copyright Act) does not apply to the matter at issue, plaintiff’s motion is denied.”
