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Cher is being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in celebration of her spectacular career as part of 2026 Grammys weekend
The singer, 79, has enjoyed a decades-long career that contained hits as one half of Sonny and Cher before her enormous success as a solo artist
In 2004, Cher looked back at her journey and told PEOPLE why meeting late husband Sonny Bono was a catalyst for change throughout her life and drove her toward success
Cher's journey has been truly one-of-a-kind.
The singer, 79, is among the recipients ofThe Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards, named one of those awarded the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award.
PEOPLE spoke with Cher in 2004 for our 30th-anniversary double issue, asking her, along with other stars, to discuss a defining moment from the previous three decades. As Cher prepares for another defining moment this weekend, we look back on her response, which focuses on how her late husband, Sonny Bono, shaped her life and set her on the path she would later dominate on her own.
"What's the most significant moment in my life over the past 30 years? Well, meeting Sonny Bono is the thing that shaped my whole life in some sort of way, but since it happened 40 years ago, I'd have to say the next most important moment was splitting from him. We divorced in 1975, and it forced me to go out on my own," Cher told PEOPLE.
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"The truth is, I didn't want to go out on my own. I was comfortable being half of Sonny and Cher. I wanted to keep working with him and go on as a team. Growing up, I had all these ideas coming out of my ears. But I couldn't make them come together. Then I met Sonny and everything coalesced," she continued.
"From the first time I saw him, I thought he was the most interesting man I'd ever seen. He had a Beatles haircut and hippie boots and he was dressed so strangely. I was just mesmerized by him."
The duo reached a breaking point, both personally and professionally, in 1975, leading them to split in music and in life.
"We had two components to our relationship: personal and business. When we worked together, it was fabulous. Except for the money part of it, we were equal partners. We had a great time. Both of us were really funny. We enjoyed each other. But our home life was harsh," Cher acknowledged.
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"We didn't communicate well. We worked so hard and long and spent so many hours onstage that when we were together at home, it was strange. We worked so often, it took me a long time to realize I wasn't happy."
The split led to a "really weird" time, where the two continued to work and live together while trying to separate their lives."Then he did his own TV show and I did my own show, and then the network brought us together again. By then, a year had gone by. I was pregnant with my son [Elijah, by Gregg Allman]. I was pregnant by a person who was also divorcing me. And I was divorced from Sonny, but working with him. It was completely bizarre," she shared.
Cher said that she and Sonny "talked all the time," even through their most tumultuous stages.
"Through girlfriends and boyfriends, through ups and downs, we always talked. That's the way it was. You know, on the day of our divorce, he grabbed me and kissed me and stuck his tongue down my throat. I was really furious with him. Then we just started to laugh. It was hard for me to be angry with him. I could never do it very well," Cher said.
That special connection and camaraderie continued through Sonny's death. The singer-turned-politician died at age 62 in a skiing accident, and Cher's 1998 comeback albumBelievewas dedicated to him."I was in London [in 1998] when I heard that Sonny had died. [Chaz] called and told me, and it was too weird to comprehend. I said, 'Oh my God. Honey, are you okay?' But then after those words left my lips, I got completely hysterical. It was terrible," she recalled.
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"I fell down on the floor. Everything was awful. I got on a plane and flew straight to Palm Springs, and everybody in his life was there."
Grief impacts everyone differently and years later, Cher acknowledged she was no exception."Strangely enough, I don't think of Sonny that often. Probably because I don't think of him as gone," she admitted.
"I think of him as someplace else. Not here, but not gone. And every so often something will happen or I'll see something and I'll think, 'Oh God, Sonny would think this is so funny.' "
Read the original article onPeople