Cher’s courtroom win in her long-running royalties dispute with Mary Bono has come with a costly catch: she will have to pay her own legal bill, which totals $1,023,605, according to the report.
A federal judge denied Cher’s request to have Mary Bono cover those expenses, ruling that the case was largely about contract issues rather than federal copyright law. That distinction mattered because the repayment rules Cher relied on did not apply, the report says. The decision follows a final judgment signed in late November 2025 that upheld the earlier ruling in Cher’s favor.
The dispute centered on Sonny Bono’s music rights
The feud stemmed from the rights tied to Sonny Bono’s compositions and the divorce agreement he and Cher reached in 1978. The judge previously found that Mary Bono could not use the federal Copyright Act to take back Cher’s 50 percent share of those royalties. He also ruled that Cher still has the right to receive her composition and record royalties directly, even after selling those rights to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group in 2022.
Mary Bono had wanted to deal directly with Iconic and send payments through Sonny Bono’s estate without Cher being involved. She later challenged the ruling that Cher is entitled to half of the publishing royalties from Sonny and Cher’s 1960s hits, including “I Got You Babe” and “The Beat Goes On.” An appeals court has not yet ruled on that challenge.
The report notes that Cher, now 79, became famous performing with Sonny in the 1960s before building a solo career that brought her Grammy, Oscar and Emmy wins. After Sonny Bono died in a skiing accident in 1998, Mary Bono took over his estate. His music publishing interests became eligible for termination starting in 2018, which led Mary to notify publishers that she intended to reclaim certain rights.
Source: rollingstone.com
