Cher Says Val Kilmer Is the Only Celebrity Who Broke Up With Her

Cher Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM

Only a “few men” have walked away from the chance to date Cher — and she still remembers their names.

During her Wednesday, November 20, appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Cher, 78, was asked whether men “expect fabulous sex” from her.

“Yes — and they get it,” Cher confidently replied, adding that she’s aware of their enthusiasm. “You can tell by the reaction.”

Howard Stern then asked, “Who would ever leave you?” to which Cher had a simple answer.

“Few men,” she quipped. “Look, I was madly in love with Val Kilmer and he left … because sometimes you’re only meant to stay with someone for so long. Val was really young.”

Cher and Val Kilmer Barry King/WireImage

Cher and Kilmer, who are 13 years apart in age, were together from 1982 to 1984. They met at one of Cher’s birthday parties.

“Val didn’t want to yell ‘Cher’ and I didn’t want to yell ‘Val,’” Cher recalled to People in 2021. “We also called ourselves Valus Maximus and Cherus Reprimandus. It was just kind of who I was in the household. Of course, he was Maximus, come on.”

She added at the time, “We became friends because we laughed at the same things constantly,” she said. “He would sleep over and it was just a friendship [at first]. That took a long time. Well, I guess not really a long time.”

After their breakup, Cher and the Top Gun star, now 64, remained friendly, and the pop icon even invited Kilmer to live in her guest house when he was battling throat cancer in 2015.

“One night I suddenly awoke vomiting blood that covered the bed like a scene out of The Godfather. I prayed immediately, then called 911. Then, alerted my hostess. Cher stepped in and stepped up,” Kilmer recalled in his 2020 memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry. “And yet even in my grave condition, I saw her scanning the paramedic, who was Gregory Peck drop-dead handsome. Only in Hollywood, right?”

He continued, “Despite the fact that I was covered in blood, I caught her eye and bounced my brows like Groucho Marx. Hubba hubba. Cher was bashful to be busted but then couldn’t help laughing out loud at the audacity. Here we were, joking about beauty and desire, while I looked like a stunt man from Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and, yes, while my life seemed to be in mortal danger. We laughed out loud before they finished with my vitals and shut me up with an oxygen mask.”

Cher has been married twice, first to Sonny Bono from 1964 to 1969 and later to Gregg Allman from 1975 to 1979. She shared son Chaz, 55, with Bono, who died in 1998, and son Elijah, 48, with Allman, who died in 2017. Cher is now dating Alexander “AE” Edwards.