Cher once had a lesbian affair: ‘It was just something to try’

Pop icon and staunch LGBTQ+ ally Cher once revealed that she’d had a lesbian affair when she was younger, saying the experience was “something to try”.

The 77-year-old “Believe” hitmaker, who is currently in a relationship with 37-year-old musician Alexander Edwards, reportedly admitted to her son Chaz Bono that she had “an affair with a woman” when she was younger.

In a 2002 interview with Out magazine, Cher discussed being the “freest” person in her family as one reason why she was open to same-sex intimacy in the ‘60s.

According to the magazine, Bono told their reporter about Cher’s admission “many years” before the 2002 interview was published.

When asked by the interviewer whether she believed sexuality to be fluid, Cher admitted that she was “not sure”, but was no stranger to having crushes on women.

“I can remember when I went to Catholic school, all the girls had crushes on the older girls, you know? We had this kind of hero worship of the older girls,” she said.

“I don’t know if it was sexual, but it was definitely some sort of a crush.”

The reporter then probed Cher on why she thought she had a same-sex experience, to which Cher nonchalantly responded: “It was just something to try.”

“In my family, I was the person that was the freest. Also, it was the ‘60s, and the ‘60s were so open,” she added of the era of sexual liberation.

“Freedom was something that people were trying on, like hand-gliding.”

Though Cher seemed comfortable to discuss her own experiences of being with a woman, she eloquently explained why the experience doesn’t define her sexuality now.

Pressed by the reporter to expand on how she felt after she “experimented” with a woman, Cher shared: “I think at some point you know who you are.”

She added: “It comes to you what you want to do; it comes to you what you want to be and what you like and what you don’t like. And maybe it was because I didn’t have any feeling of it being positive or negative.”

Though Cher might not deem herself part of the LGBTQ+ community now, she’s certainly become one of its most ardent supporter.

The “DJ Play a Christmas Song” singer, who released her first festive album, Christmas, in October, has previously admitted to finding it difficult when her son Chaz Bono first came out as gay, and then as trans, but has since stood staunchly by the community.

In recent months, she has called out the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that is currently sweeping the US, and promised to leave the US if Donald Trump is elected as president for a second time.