Table of Contents
Cher’s father is John Paul Sarkisian, an Armenian-American truck driver and World War II veteran who was largely absent from her life and passed away on January 28, 1985, at age 58 in Fresno, California.
Cher also considers her stepfather, John Southall, her emotional father figure. Born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946, Cher is 79 years old in 2026 and will turn 80 in May.
Quick Bio
| Detail | Information |
| Full Name | Cherilyn Sarkisian |
| Stage Name | Cher |
| Date of Birth | May 20, 1946 |
| Age (2026) | 79 years old (turning 80 in May 2026) |
| Birthplace | El Centro, California, USA |
| Zodiac Sign | Taurus |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Armenian, Cherokee, Native American, English, Irish, German |
| Height | 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) |
| Biological Father | John Paul Sarkisian (died January 28, 1985) |
| Stepfather / Emotional Father | John Southall (actor) |
| Mother | Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean Crouch; died December 10, 2022) |
| Half Sister | Georganne LaPiere |
| First Husband | Sonny Bono (married 1964, divorced 1975) |
| Second Husband | Gregg Allman (married 1975, divorced 1979) |
| Current Partner | Alexander “AE” Edwards (together since 2022) |
| Children | Chaz Bono (son, born 1969), Elijah Blue Allman (son, born 1976) |
| Net Worth (2026) | Estimated $360 million |
| Profession | Singer, Actress, TV Host, Director, Activist |
| Notable Awards | Academy Award, Emmy Award, Grammy Award, Golden Globe |
Who Is Cher’s Father?
The background of Cher is a complicated story of her father. She was raised by two fathers: the real one and her father-in-law, who was her mother’s husband. She has openly talked about neither of the men in her 2024 memoir.
Cher’s Biological Father: John Paul Sarkisia
Cher was biologically born out of the yields of John, who was an Armenian-American and was born in Oakland. He was in the U.S. Army throughout World War II, and he subsequently served as a truck driver in California.
He got married to the mother of Cher, Georgia Holt, on June 22, 1945, in Reno, Nevada. The relationship was not strong in the first place; when they got married, Georgia was already pregnant with Cher, and the relationship started to collapse.
John Paul was a gambling, drug, and alcohol addict, and he was an irresponsible partner and an absentee father.
It was at the early age of ten months at the time of divorce. They made two unsuccessful attempts to reconcile, remarried, and divorced again, but the relationships did not last.
Cher did not see her father daily because, at the time when she could have begun to build long-lasting memories, her father was no longer a part of her life. It was not until she was 11 that she officially met him.
The first encounter between Cher and him occurred in the fashion of a face-to-face meeting, and Cher was at a loss for words to describe him. She looked deeper into his dark eyes and had a sudden feeling of being an Armenian.
The relationship was not consistent despite such a connection.
John Paul was handsome but distressed, and Cher related a kind of sleight of hand in his character. During her adult life, her replies to her meetings were sharp and very infrequent.
In 1975, John Paul also sued Cher and two magazines, claiming that she falsely depicted him as a criminal and had destroyed his reputation. Their relationship was dysfunctional, as pointed out in the case.
He passed away on January 28, 1985, in Fresno, California, at the age of 58. Then he was a horse breeder employed at Somerset Farms, Santa Ynez.
Is Cher’s Father Still Alive?
No. John Paul Sarkisian, the natural father of Cher, passed away on January 28, 1985, when Cher was 38. He was 58, and even when he passed on, their relationship had not been settled.
Cher has also lost her stepfather and her adopted dad. Gilbert was legally adopted as Cher, together with her half-sister Georganne, by Gilbert LaPiere, who died after his marriage to Georgia Holt in 2012.
John Southall: The Father Cher Actually Chose
However, even though John Paul Sarkisian was her biological father, Cher has always insisted that the man she had considered her father was her mother’s third husband, John Southall.
An actor named John Southall married Georgia Holt and had a half-sister, Cher, and another sister, Georganne LaPiere, born in 1951.
Cher loved Southall, living with the family, and had a genuinely paternalistic attachment to him. He later turned out to be a heavy drinker and vanished completely after he was divorced by Georgia in the mid-1950s.
Cher has not been shy to discuss Southall in her 2024 memoir. She acknowledged that this was confusing, but she still regards him as her father, though they had been married for only several years of marriage together before he disappeared.
His vanishing was typical of what Cher had experienced throughout her existence: men who moved in and out, creating financial strife, emotional voids, and children deserving better than they got.
Cher’s Mother: Georgia Holt
Cher’s mother was Georgia Holt, born Jackie Jean Crouch on June 9, 1926, in Kensett, Arkansas. She was a model, actress, singer, and waitress who worked tirelessly to keep her family afloat through seven marriages to six husbands.
Georgia was only 18 when she gave birth to Cher, a young woman navigating poverty, an unstable marriage, and the demands of single motherhood in an era that offered women very few legal or financial protections.
Georgia was a resilient and musically gifted woman who passed her talent directly to Cher. She had minor television and film roles in the 1950s and worked as a club singer.
Cher has spoken about her mother as the central figure of her life, far more so than any of the men who passed through their household. Georgia Holt died on December 10, 2022, at the age of 96. Cher announced her death on social media with the simple words “Mom is gone.”
Cher’s Sister: Georganne LaPiere
Cher’s half-sister is Georganne LaPiere, born in 1951 to Georgia Holt and John Southall. The two sisters share their mother but have different fathers.
Georganne is an actress best known for her appearances on General Hospital during the 1970s and 1980s.
Cher helped raise Georganne when their mother was working or dealing with the instability of her marriages, and their bond remains one of the most important relationships in Cher’s personal life.
What Nationality Is Cher, and What Ethnicity Is Cher?
Cher is American by nationality. Her ethnicity is one of the most frequently discussed aspects of her background because of its remarkable mix.
Her biological father, John Paul Sarkisian, was Armenian-American, giving Cher her striking dark eyes and distinctive features. Her mother, Georgia Holt, had Cherokee Native American, English, Irish, German, and Dutch ancestry.
This combination of Armenian and Cherokee heritage, along with other European roots, produced one of the most distinctive looks in entertainment history.
Cher has spoken openly about her mixed ethnic background throughout her career and credits her Armenian heritage partly for her enduring public interest in Armenian community causes and genocide recognition efforts.
Cher’s Age Now: 79 in 2026
Cher was born on May 20, 1946, making her 79 years old in early 2026. She turns 80 years old in May 2026, a milestone birthday that has generated enormous media attention.
Reports from December 2025 suggested that Cher is planning to mark the occasion by potentially marrying her longtime boyfriend, Alexander “AE” Edwards, around the time of her 80th birthday celebration.
Her team denied a formal engagement, but sources close to the couple told British media that she was considering the occasion as the perfect time to seal their commitment.
Cher’s Husbands: A Full Picture
Sonny Bono
Cher met Salvatore “Sonny” Bono in 1962 at a party in Los Angeles, just after she dropped out of high school. They married in 1964 and became one of the most iconic musical partnerships in American pop history.
Their variety series, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, dominated American television in the early 1970s. They divorced in 1975 after 11 years together. Sonny Bono later became a Republican Congressman for California and died on January 5, 1998, after hitting a tree while skiing in Nevada.
Gregg Allman
Just four days after her divorce from Sonny was finalized in 1975, Cher married rock musician Gregg Allman, lead vocalist of the Allman Brothers Band. The marriage lasted four years before ending in divorce in 1979. Gregg Allman died on May 27, 2017, after a long battle with liver cancer.
Alexander “AE” Edwards in 2026
Cher is not currently married. She is in a relationship with Alexander “AE” Edwards, a 39-year-old music executive at Universal Music Group and collaborator with artists including Billie Eilish, Post Malone, and Tyga.
The couple met at Paris Fashion Week in September 2022 and went public that November. Their 40-year age gap drew immediate public attention and commentary, which Cher consistently dismisses.
She told CBS Mornings in November 2025 simply that nobody knows what goes on between them, they just have a blast together, and that she loves him.
Cher’s Children
Cher has two children from her two marriages. Her son Chaz Bono, born in 1969 to Sonny Bono, is an activist and actor who came out as a transgender man in 2009.
Cher has publicly supported Chaz throughout his transition and speaks about him with immense pride. Her second son, Elijah Blue Allman, born in 1976 with Gregg Allman, is a musician and was the lead vocalist of the rock band Deadsy.
In 2023, Cher attempted to gain a conservatorship over Elijah due to concerns about his well-being, a legal effort that generated significant controversy before eventually being resolved.
What Is Cher’s Real Name?
Cher’s real name is Cherilyn Sarkisian. She was born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946, in El Centro, California. During childhood, after her stepfather, Gilbert LaPiere, legally adopted her and her sister, she briefly used the surname LaPiere.
She began performing simply as Cher after meeting Sonny Bono, and the single-name identity became one of the most recognizable in entertainment history.
Cher in 2025 and 2026: Life Right Now
In November 2025, Cher appeared on CBS Mornings with Gayle King and spoke candidly about her relationship with Alexander Edwards, her continued passion for performing, and her approach to aging.
She and Edwards attended the Valentino event at Studio 54 in New York City during NYFW in September 2025, continuing to appear together publicly.
Reports from December 2025 placed Cher in planning mode for her May 2026 80th birthday celebrations, with multiple sources suggesting a possible wedding to Alexander Edwards around that milestone.
Her team officially denied any confirmed engagement but stopped short of fully ruling out a future marriage. As of early 2026, Cher remains one of the most culturally active and widely followed entertainers alive, approaching her ninth decade without any signs of slowing down.
Little-Known Facts About Cher
As an infant, Cher was placed in a Catholic home for wayward mothers and orphans. Georgia Holt, struggling financially in Scranton, Pennsylvania, temporarily placed baby Cher with nuns to survive. The nuns reportedly tried to block Georgia from taking Cher back and wanted her to be adopted. Georgia had to fight to reclaim her own child.
Cher is the only solo artist to have a number-one single on a Billboard chart in six consecutive decades. She achieved this across the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, a record no other solo artist in history has matched.
John Paul Sarkisian sued Cher for $4 million in 1975. Her own biological father filed a defamation lawsuit against her, claiming she told the public he was a criminal. The lawsuit reflects the extraordinary dysfunction of their relationship.
Val Kilmer, one of her most famous ex-boyfriends, passed away in April 2025. Kilmer died at age 65 after battling health issues for years. Cher had spoken about being madly in love with him and heartbroken when he left the relationship. His passing in 2025 closed one of the most emotional chapters of her personal history.
Her mother, Georgia Holt, was married seven times to six different husbands. Georgia twice married Cher’s biological father, John Paul Sarkisian, and then went on to marry five other men across her lifetime. This pattern of serial marriage deeply shaped Cher’s own approach to relationships and independence.
Conclusion
Cher’s story in 2026 begins, as it always has, with a childhood defined by absence and survival. Her biological father, John Paul Sarkisian, was largely a ghost, her stepfather, John Southall, disappeared, and her mother, Georgia Holt, held everything together through seven marriages, dozens of jobs, and sheer determination.
Out of that unstable foundation, Cher built one of the most remarkable careers in the history of American entertainment. As she approaches her 80th birthday in May 2026, she does so as the daughter of a man she barely knew, the product of a mother she adored, and a woman who turned absence into ambition and made herself one of the most enduring names in the world.
FAQs
Is Cher’s father still alive?
No. Cher’s biological father, John Paul Sarkisian, died on January 28, 1985, in Fresno, California, at age 58. Her adopted father, Gilbert LaPiere, also passed away in 2012. Neither of the father figures from her childhood is still living.
What ethnicity is Cher?
Cher is of mixed ethnicity. Her biological father was Armenian-American, and her mother had Cherokee Native American, English, Irish, German, and Dutch heritage. This combination of Armenian and Cherokee ancestry defines the core of her widely recognized ethnic background.
What is Cher’s real name?
Cher’s real name is Cherilyn Sarkisian. She was born under this name in El Centro, California, on May 20, 1946, and adopted the single-name stage identity Cher after beginning her entertainment career with Sonny Bono in the early 1960s.
Who is Cher’s current partner in 2026?
Cher is in a relationship with Alexander “AE” Edwards, a 39-year-old music executive at Universal Music Group. They have been together since late 2022 and continue to appear publicly together in 2026. A possible marriage around Cher’s 80th birthday in May 2026 has been widely reported but not officially confirmed.
Who are Cher’s children?
Cher has two sons. Chaz Bono, born in 1969 to Sonny Bono, is a transgender activist and actor. Elijah Blue Allman, born in 1976 with Gregg Allman, is a musician and former lead vocalist of the band Deadsy. Both are adults with their own public profiles.