Cher Got Approval Of Her Transgender Son, Chaz Bono, To Use His ‘Dead Name’ In Her New Memoir

Cher reveals the considerate steps she took when including her transgender son, Chaz Bono, in her new memoir, saying she got his approval to use his “dead name,” Chastity. 

The singer made the heartfelt disclaimer at the front of her memoir, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, noting that she received Chaz’s blessing to use his so-called “dead name” before transitioning in 2008 within parts of her book. 

“In this memoir, I refer to my son Chaz as Chas, the name he went by during the years covered in this book,” Cher wrote in the book. “Chaz has granted his blessing for this usage. In the next volume, at the appropriate point, I will refer to my son as Chaz.”

Chaz, the son of Cher and her late ex-husband Sonny Bono started his transition right before turning 40 and legally changed his name and gender in 2010. While undergoing the process, he made a documentary titled Becoming Chaz. 

Cher, 78, has been transparent about her son’s transition, noting that it was a significant change. 

“It wasn’t easy,” the pop star said in a 2020 interview. “I remember calling, and the old [voicemail] message … was on the phone, which was very difficult.”

While Cher initially had her reservations, the singer eventually came around.

“You don’t really lose them. They just are in a different shape,” she said of trans people during the interview.

She added that Chaz, now 55, was “so unbelievably happy.”

The star’s memoir highlights her childhood, her marriage to Sonny, and the start of her music career. 

Cher’s first portion of her memoir will be available in stores on Nov. 19. 

In 2014, Chaz spoke to uInterview exclusively about his transition process. “I just had a tremendous amount of fear of what other people would think of me if I transitioned, and knowing that I would have to do it in the public eye was something that really scared me, and I thought that I would get a lot of criticism from people,” Bono told uInterview exclusively. “And I guess kind of slowly over time I worked through a lot of that stuff, and mostly, I just came to understand that I needed to take care of myself and my needs first and not be so concerned of what other people thought of me.”

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