Cher's bizarre life

Believe it or not, entertainment icon Cher has been nipped, tucked and sucked - but it's her bizarre marriage to Sonny Bono and lesbian rumours that will stun readers when a new tell-all book hits shelves this October.

Just when you thought Cher had bared all, a few new skeletons have popped out of her already crowded closet. Author Mark Bego's book, Cher: If You Believe, exposes the previously unknown shocking truths about the diva, including massive amounts of cosmetic reconstruction.

"Cher has had a nose job, cheek implants, breast implants, $30,000 worth of teeth straightening, collagen injections in her lips and her behind lifted," says Bego.

There's no doubt Cher, 55, has had to suffer a little to Turn Back Time, especially when romance and surgery collided. While dating outrageous Kiss rocker Gene Simmons, his New York Jewish mother invited the superstar over for a Passover Seder.

"Cher spent three hours standing at the dinner table during the holiday meal," Simmon's mother recalls. "She couldn't sit down because she just had her tattooed butt surgically lifted!"

But the pain Cher endured thanks to her plastic surgery antics pales in comparison to what she went through during her marriage to Sonny Bono.

Cher was 17 when she met Bono, then 28 and a divorced father. The couple married in 1964, had daughter Chastity in 1969 and went on to become one of the entertainment industry's most beloved duos after the smash hit I Got You Babe skyrocketed them to fame.

Behind all the glitz and the glamour of her Bob Mackie gowns and hit TV show, though, Cher was miserable.

The author reveals that during their marriage, Bono repeatedly hired prostitutes, even while he was travelling with Cher. Toward the end of their marriage, he even had a live-in girlfriend. "When they stayed at hotels, Sonny would take an extra suite, and when Cher was asleep, he'd go there and call out for prostitutes," says a friend of the couple.

Bono also had other weird habits, according to the pal, including peering into people's windows with a telescope.

Bego's candid book reveals that things got particularly strange during a 1972 concert in Las Vegas.

After her marriage with Bono fell apart in 1975, Cher wed and fled badboy rocker Greg Allman, with whom she had son Elijah Blue, 25.

And even though she's dated her share of men, Cher still can't seem to shake lesbian rumours.

Yet while the man-eating music sensation may have no trouble declaring she's straight, she freaked after discovering her daughter Chastity, now 32, was a lesbian.

Love all, again

Only six months after it cost him £11 million to divorce her, speculation is growing that three-times Wimbledon champion Boris Becker and his ex-wife Barbara are planning to remarry. The couple have been spending more and more time together with their children in recent weeks and booked adjoining suites at a hotel in Graz, Austria, when the 33-year-old tennis star was playing in a veterans' tournament.

Now even Barbara's American lawyer Samuel Burstyn - the man who played such a big part in the February settlement which ended the acrimonious divorce proceedings - has said that marriage second time around cannot be ruled out.

He told Berlin's BZ newspaper the two had made the "first positive steps in the right direction towards a new relationship". He said: "They're open to it. This situation makes it possible for her to start a new relationship with Boris."

Burstyn stressed that money was the last thing on 34-year-old Barbara's mind and that she had been won over by her former husband's commitment to her and the children.

He said: "It has always meant a great deal to Barbara that her children love and respect their father. Should they decide on a remarriage I would draw up a pre-nuptial contract to avoid any future disputes."

The Graz holiday will be the third the couple have taken this year. At the start of July the Beckers travelled with sons Noah Gabriel, seven, and Elias Balthasar, 13 months, to spend two weeks in the Bahamas.

Shortly afterwards Becker paid £300 a day to stay with Barbara in a Majorca hotel. Becker reportedly paid his ex-wife £10 million, gave her their £1.8 million apartment on Florida's Fisher Island, several hundred thousand pounds worth of jewels and is paying £4,000 a month in maintenance for his sons. On top of that, he was obliged to find a further £1 million from his £200 million fortune to settle a lawsuit over his baby daughter Anna, conceived after a brief fling in the broom cupboard of Nobu restaurant in Park Lane with 33-year-old half-Russian, half-Algerian model Angela Ermakova. Friends say the encounter cost him his marriage but that Barbara is softening towards her ex-husband after several heart-to-hearts of the "it will never happen again" variety. She was by his side and in an adjacent suite at the Wiesner Hotel in Graz when he took on the likes of Bjorn Borg and Pat Cash.

If the Beckers do remarry, they will become just another high-profile couple who have discovered they cannot do without their respective partners once they have legally been cast asunder.

One of the most famous cases in point is the Duke and Duchess of York, still living under the same roof in Sunninghill Park, despite the divorce courts ending their 10-year marriage in May 1996-they had separated in 1992.

Then there is the case of Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger, although they didn't actually marry legally - their 1990 Hindu wedding on Bali was declared "void" at his request in July 1999. Friends say they are as close as ever and there is every chance they may rekindle their long-running relationship.

Evening Standard

Songbird shocker

Emotionally shattered superstar Mariah Carey was so self-destructive she may have succeeded in killing herself if not for her mother's desperate bid to save her life.

As seen in the picture, taken of Carey just two days after she was released from the hospital it looks like the diva's right wrist was carefully bandaged. But while bandages maybe helping the fallen songbird's wrist to heal, they can't hide Carey's wound.

"I looked over and there it was, the bandage on her wrist - proof of what Mariah may have done to herself," says an eyewitness who spotted the singer in her mother's yard near New York City.

"Mariah was wearing pajamas, and I could see the bandage popping out of her sleeve. It was right where you would expect it to be if you had slashed your wrist."

Despite the photograph - Carey's lawyers insist her wrist was not bandaged and that she did not attempt suicide. The songbird was under careful supervision as she strolled around the yard, wearing blue flannel PJ's covered with a white cloud design, the source reveals. "There was a female attendant with her who had to weigh about 200 pounds and looked extremely strong. She followed Mariah's every move."

As reported, Carey suffered a breakdown in her 7th-floor room in Manhattan's Tribeca Grand Hotel. Staffers became concerned when a frantic Carey called the front desk at 6 a.m. asking for extra towels "because there was blood everywhere."

After a brief stay at Northern Westchester Hospital, Carey checked into Silver Hill Hospital, an exclusive hospital in Connecticut often frequented by troubled celebrities.

After her release, Carey returned to her mother's home in Goldens Bridge, N.Y., to recuperate. And her millions of fans are praying that she'll finally be the on the road to recovery.

Ex-husband trying to wreck Mariah Carey?

Meanwhile shattered songbird Mariah Carey blames ex-husband Tommy Mottola for her recent breakdown and believes he's trying to destroy her career! Those are the startling accusations of Mariah's brother, Morgan, and other well-placed sources. They claim the head of Sony Records was so upset when Mariah walked out that he put her under intense surveillance and pressured radio stations not to play her records.

Finally, the pressure took its toll on Mariah, who had a spectacular and widely publicized breakdown at the end of July. "I've moved to New York to protect Mariah from Tommy Mottola and his goons," Morgan Carey, a bodybuilder, said. "There have been death threats, warnings to program directors nationwide, prank phone calls to her residence, physical and electronic surveillance, attempts at intimidation of her staff and a vicious pubic relations assault, all apparently orchestrated by Tommy," Morgan elaborated in a shockingly detailed statement he posted on the Internet.

"There is no doubt in my mind, or the minds of anyone close to Mariah that the primary cause of the agitation and anxiety which brought on her collapse was the repeated attacks upon her by her ex-husband. He had his people watching and calling the house and Mariah was uncomfortable sleeping in her own home," said Mariah's brother.

"While booze and pressures of work were major factors in Mariah's breakdown, so was a determined attempt by Tommy Mottola to destroy her," claims a close friend of Mariah. "Mariah believes that control freak Tommy couldn't bear the thought that she walked out on him, leaving the marriage and then leaving his company. He's vowed to destroy Mariah, using every trick in the business book of dirty tricks. He would even sabotage her releases for his own record label by giving other artistes on the same Sony label better treatment and more publicity.

"After she left Sony and signed a $118 million contract with Virgin Records, Mottola really went into high gear to destroy her."

But Tommy Mottola said: "I am deeply saddened by Mariah's recent illness and I remain completely supportive of her. Any allegation that I have hindered her career, now or in the past, is completely untrue." However, Mariah is so concerned, she hired famed private detective Jack Palladino to prove the sabotage. "Her belief is that Tommy is attempting to control her career, her future and her life," said Palladino.

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