Cher has shed light on being placed in an orphanage as a young girl – before her mother was able to regain custody after saving money by working at an all-night diner.
During an appearance on Today in promotion of her upcoming memoir, the Believe singer described how her parents were unable to care for her, prompting her father, John Sarkisian, to relinquish her.
Georgia Holt, who ended up raising Cher as a single mother, was eventually able to retrieve her daughter after she secured the funds and met with a congressman.
Cher has no recollection of her time in the orphanage but was so young she wasn’t even walking when she entered the facility.
But by the time she left, she was able to walk with some assistance.
‘My dad took us to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and put me in a orphanage and my mom was working at an all night diner,’ Cher shared with Hoda Kotb.
Cher has shed light on being placed in an orphanage as a young girl – before her mother was able to regain custody after saving money by working at an all-night diner; Cher pictured with her mother Georgia Holt in 2010
Cher’s mother was eventually able to afford to pick up Cher but she still ‘had to meet a congressman to do it,’ the singer recalled.
The superstar doesn’t remember her time in the orphanage.
‘I was just five seconds old,’ she said.
‘My mom said when I went in I wasn’t walking, and when I came out, I was walking but holding on,’ she recalled.
Cher’s mother has been married numerous times – twice to Cher’s father John.
‘I don’t care!’ she said when asked about the number of times her mother walked down the aisle.
‘After a couple of times, it’s like, “Mom, get a life,”‘ she joked.
Che’s mother spoke candidly about the difficulties she faced as a young mother in the 2013 documentary ‘Dear Mom, Love Cher’.
Cher has no recollection of her time in the orphanage but was so young she wasn’t even walking when she first entered the facility; the singer pictured as a baby
Cher seen on the set of Today as she promoted her eponymous memoir
Cher and her mother in 2013
She told how, while pregnant with Cher, she almost had an abortion because of pressure from her own mother.
Georgia said when she fell pregnant with Cher she had just left her first husband.
She said her mother, who had given birth to Georgia when she was only 13, said she either have an abortion or return to her husband. She could not bring the child up as a single mother.
Georgia also admitted she had to temporarily put Cher into an orphanage because she couldn’t afford to look after her, a decision she has always regretted.
Talking of the day she gave birth to Cher, Georgia said: ‘I can remember the chairs were chrome [in the clinic], and I was sweating. The sweat was just coming off of me on this chrome and when the door opened and it was my turn, I said, ‘Mother, I can’t do it.’ So, that’s how she’s here.’
Cher told the USA Today newspaper in 2013: ‘I heard the abortion story when I was a teenager.
Cher: The Memoir: Part One will be released on November 19
‘The orphanage story has been a touchy one for my mom her whole life, and she didn’t want to talk about it. I said, ‘Mom, why didn’t you just march in and take me?’ she recalled.
‘She said, ‘I didn’t have the power. I didn’t have any money or a job, and the church was so strong. I’d go see you every day and you’d be crying. You don’t know what it was like.’ It was harder for women then.
‘I thought, this could be tricky, But what’s anyone going to do to me now? So I come from a poor white trash background. It doesn’t make any difference.’
Cher: The Memoir: Part One will be released on November 19.
