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Cher, 78, turns back time in _Cher: The Memoir, Part One,_ a new autobiography that takes readers from her impoverished youth with a glamorous mother and parade of sketchy father figures to
superstardom. Because a life story as big as hers can’t be contained in one book, a second volume is set to arrive as early as next year. The singer/actress is frank about her doomed
marriages to Sonny Bono and Gregg Allman, and a lifesaving relationship with David Geffen, 81. The book brims with eye-popping revelations. She dated Warren Beatty at 15. Surrealist Salvador
Dalí invited her to an orgy. After bringing them to “movie night” at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion, drunken John Lennon and Harry Nilsson stripped naked and jumped into the grotto pool. “A
lot of people will be surprised because they think they know all about me,” says _Moonstruck_ Oscar winner Cher, the only woman to top _Billboard_ charts in seven straight decades. The
mother of two (Chaz, 55, and Elijah Blue, 48), she lives in Malibu and spends time with her boyfriend of two years, music executive Alexander “AE” Edwards, 38. She told AARP about her
tumultuous childhood, rocky romances, rise to stardom, and how writing the book helped her understand her mom and herself. WHY DID YOU WANT TO SHARE YOUR STORY? I wasn’t dying to write it. I
didn’t know what I was going to say. Then I thought, maybe it will help younger people or people who want to be something in their life. They’ll see how everything can fall apart many times
and still work out. DID THE UPHEAVAL IN YOUR CHILDHOOD MAKE YOU DETERMINED TO FIND STABILITY IN YOUR LIFE? Are you kidding me? There’s no stability in my life. I just dragged my childhood
all through my life. This is who I am. Sometimes I would wake up and not know where I was. I’m quite a Taurus. I dig my feet in and I just keep going. I don’t give up. In that way I have a
certain kind of stability. YOU RAN AWAY ON A TRICYCLE AT 9, RODE A STRANGE HORSE, THEN HOPPED ON A TRAIN. WHAT PLANTED THAT WILD SEED IN YOU? Different things. It was my mother’s effect on
me. It was hard times I went through. I wanted to have fun. Also, I was not openly defiant, but I knew exactly how to make my mother upset. "Mom and me in Gardena, 1946." Courtesy
of Cher YOUR MOTHER (GEORGIA HOLT) HAD SIX HUSBANDS, SEVEN DIVORCES, MOVED AROUND A LOT AND OFTEN LEFT YOU WITH OTHER RELATIVES. YOU WRITE SO LOVINGLY ABOUT HER, BUT DO YOU EVER SEE HER AS
NEGLECTFUL OR RECKLESS? My grandmother, she only cared about money. My mom was too naïve and too guided by my grandmother and my grandfather, who was a crazy alcoholic and tried to kill
them. My mom was just trying to navigate. She was beautiful. That was the main draw. She was very intelligent, but didn’t have any work skills. She was hysterical and a very warm person. DID
SHE MINIMIZE YOUR PROBLEMS BECAUSE HERS WERE MORE SERIOUS? I could never have a good problem to myself, because no matter what was happening to me, she was, “Oh well, at least your father
didn’t try to gas you.” What could I say to that?