'I really didn't have any freedom': Cher opens up about her difficult relationship with Sonny Bono

25:01Cher: The difficult reality behind the scenes of The Sonny & Cher Show

In 1962, Cher met Sonny Bono for the first time at a coffee shop in Los Angeles. She was 16 and looking for her big break, and he was 27 and working for record producer Phil Spector. Not long after, they became roommates with one condition: she had to cook and clean.

"It was keeping the apartment clean that he was most interested in," Cher recalls in an interview with Q's Tom Power. "He said, 'You can move in with me and don't worry because I don't find you particularly attractive.'"

Despite the supposed lack of attraction, the two eventually became a couple, got married and rose to fame as the husband-and-wife band Sonny & Cher. In her new book, Cher: The Memoir, the entertainment icon writes that Sonny became more controlling of her as they became more successful as a duo.

"It didn't happen right away because, look, I was with him when I was 16 and I was happy for him to make all the decisions," she says. "Sonny was a grown-up and he knew the business and all that. It happened very slowly. That didn't happen until much later, you know. Like it was noticeable with The Sonny and Cher Show."

On their TV show, Sonny and Cher appeared to be a playful, happy married couple, but that image didn't quite square up with what was going on at home.

I think he was frightened, too, about making money without me.- Cher

"I was the more dominant one in The Sonny and Cher Show," Cher says. "It was at home that I really didn't have any freedom…. As I started to get older, it started to chafe, you know? And at some point I was just [like], 'I can't do this anymore.' And I just walked out."

But as Cher was getting ready to leave Sonny she discovered something pretty shocking: her husband had set up a company called Cher Enterprises in which he owned 95 per cent. Under her contract, she was listed as his employee, which meant she couldn't work without his permission.

"[I said], 'What day did you decide it would be a good idea to take all my money?'" Cher recalls asking Sonny. "'I was there with you, I worked side by side [with you]. How did you figure that it would be a good idea to take all the money I worked for my entire life?'"

Sonny's response to her question was: "I always knew you'd leave me."

"I said, 'That's not a good enough answer,'" Cher says. "I think he was frightened, too, about making money without me. And I mean, we had a lot of money. The money that we had then would be like $100 million today — actually it would be more than $100 million. Money was important to me, but I think he was afraid of it, and he was afraid that he wouldn't have it."

Looking back, Cher says she's never thought of herself as a "courageous woman" — she acted the only way she knew how. "Life can be really hard, but it's harder for other people than it is for me," she says. "So you just keep going."

The full interview with Cher is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Cher produced by Vanessa Greco.