Cher has admitted she initially struggled when her transgender son, Chaz Bono, first began his transition more than 10 years ago. The pair are now closer than ever but in an interview with CNN published Thursday, Cher revealed that it was hard for her to accept Bono's sexual identity.
"It was very unlike me to, in the beginning, have a problem with Chaz being gay, and it disappeared like that," the pop icon recalled. "Then we talked about transgender for many years. And [he] would say, 'No, I don't want to,' And then he went and said, 'OK, I want to do this."
Bono has been hailed as an icon in the LGBTQ community after he became the first transgender person to compete in "Dancing With The Stars" in 2011 but during the beginning stages of his transition, Cher said it was difficult for her.
"I remember calling, and the old message ... was on the phone, and that was very difficult," she said. "But you don't really lose them. They just are in a different shape," she said, adding that Bomo is "so unbelievably happy" now.
Earlier this month Cher opened up about her son's transition in an interview with SheKnows.
"Look, I didn’t handle [Chaz’s coming out] all that well in the beginning," she said. "It took me a minute. Because you’ve been with a child for 40 years, and then all of a sudden … but you know what? Chaz was so happy!"
Cher explained that she had to change the way she viewed things completely before she could accept the transition.
"It's like, if I woke up in the morning, and I wasn’t me anymore and I didn’t feel like me and I couldn’t be me, I would just be beyond grief stricken," she said. "And that’s what I have to tell a mother or father: You are who you are, but how would you feel if you were someone else and you couldn’t be that someone else? That’s how I had to get it. And, you know, I didn’t do it all that well in the beginning. So, I can’t take too many kudos, but now, it’s fabulous."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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