Cher to Pay Over $1 Million Legal Fees After Royalties Win
Cher must cover more than $1 million in her own legal fees after winning a royalties fight against Sonny Bono’s widow, Mary Bono. A federal judge denied her bid to shift the $1,023,605 bill to Mary, ruling that fee-shifting rules for copyright cases did not apply because the dispute centered mainly on contracts.
Key Takeaways
- Cher won a multi-year royalties battle with Mary Bono but still owes her own legal costs.
- Judge John A. Kronstadt denied repayment of Cher’s $1,023,605 attorneys’ bill.
- A November 2025 judgment affirmed Cher’s 50% share of Sonny’s composition royalties from their 1978 divorce.
- Mary Bono has appealed; a federal appeals court has not yet ruled.
The latest turn in the long-running estate fight leaves each side responsible for its own lawyers, even though Cher was the overall victor on the royalties claims. Rolling Stone reported that Kronstadt found the feud turned mainly on contracts rather than federal copyright law, so the usual fee-shifting rules did not apply.
Why did Cher still pay her own legal fees?
Winning the case did not automatically mean Mary had to cover Cher’s costs. Billboard, cited by Rolling Stone, said Cher sought repayment of $1,023,605 in legal fees and was denied.
Kronstadt concluded that because the dispute centered mainly on contracts versus federal copyright law, rules that would have ordered repayment did not apply. Yahoo Entertainment, citing People, similarly noted that each side must pay its own attorneys’ fees despite Cher’s win on unpaid royalties.
What did the royalties ruling decide for Cher?
In a final judgment signed Nov. 26, 2025, Kronstadt formally lodged his prior ruling that Mary could not use the federal Copyright Act to reclaim the 50 percent share of Sonny’s composition royalties granted to Cher in their 1978 divorce agreement.
He also ruled that Cher retains the right to have her composition and record royalties paid directly to her, even though she sold those rights to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group in 2022. Mary had sought to deal with Iconic through the estate and route payments without Cher involved.
Is the Cher and Mary Bono fight over?
Not fully. Mary later challenged the finding that Cher is entitled to half of the publishing royalties from 1960s Sonny & Cher hits such as “I Got You Babe” and “The Beat Goes On.” A federal appeals court has yet to rule on that appeal.
A lawyer for Mary Bono told Rolling Stone they had no comment at the time. A lawyer for Cher did not immediately respond to the outlet’s request for comment. After Sonny’s death in a 1998 skiing accident, Mary has headed his estate; publishing termination rights became eligible beginning in 2018, which helped spark the reclaim effort.