Cher wins royalties lawsuit against Sonny Bono’s widow

Mary Bono had argued that she no longer needed to pay royalties to Cher after invoking a feature of US copyright law, but a judge has ruled otherwise

Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Thu 30 May 2024 05.12 EDT

Cher has prevailed in a long-running lawsuit that she filed against the widow of her former musical partner and husband, Sonny Bono.

Cher had received royalties from her chart-topping song catalogue with Bono since an agreement in their 1978 divorce settlement, that stated publishing revenue would be split evenly between the pair. Bono died in 1998, and his share passed to his heirs.

In 2016, widow Mary Bono – a politician who succeeded Sonny in the US House of Representatives following his death – exercised a feature of copyright law that allows songwriters and their heirs to win back rights they have signed away, arguing that she now owned Sonny’s publishing rights. Royalties were withheld from Cher in 2021, and the singer sued, with her lawyers arguing the termination clause used by Mary was “wholly inapplicable” to the royalty split agreed in the divorce settlement.

That case has now been found in Cher’s favour, with a judge ruling that “a right to receive royalties is distinct from a grant of copyright”, and that Cher should continue receiving financial compensation per the agreement.

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