Cher has filed court documents to place her son Elijah Blue Allman in a conservatorship after years of tension between the pair.
The singer, 77, claimed he’s addicted to drugs, unable to mange his financial affairs, and deals with health issues both physically and mentally, with a court date set for March 2024.
This is just the latest development in Cher and her son’s troubled relationship, which has seen the pair publicly spar on numerous occasions.
Elijah Blue is the son of Cher and late rock star Gregg Allman, who died at the age of 69 in May of 2017, and has faced numerous personal troubles in recent years.
MailOnline takes a look-back at the pair’s woes in recent years…
Drug struggles
Elijah has admitted in the past that he started taking drugs when he was 11 and has had a long battle with heroin addiction (Cher is pictured with her son in 1977)
Elijah is the son of Cher’s second husband, the late rock great Gregg Allman, who died in 2017
Elijah has admitted in the past that he started taking drugs when he was 11 and has had a long battle with heroin addiction.
In a 2014 interview with Entertainment Tonight Elijah said: ‘I started with drugs around the same time that we all did, around 11.
‘I mean it’s just what you did, it’s just what everybody did.’
He said he had started with marijuana and ecstasy and later graduated to harder drugs.
‘I was just looking to escape all the things in my past and, that’s when you turn to those kind of drugs, you know heroin and opiates,’ he said.
‘Heroin kind of saved me. If I didn’t have that at that point, I don’t know what I would have done. You may jump off a bridge. If you can only just go through that time period and live through it and then get help.’
He admitted there were times he almost died.
‘I did have some close calls and some moments of really feeling at the edge of mortality,’ he said.
‘I always kind of kept it a little bit safe but you never can do that. Even though you think that in your mind, of course the wrong things can happen.
‘The wrong combination of things can happen and you can just slip into the abyss.
‘I knew it was wrong and I knew that I was very unsatisfied with life at that point.’
Public spats
Much of the tension between Cher and Elijah has stemmed from his estranged wife Marieangela King (pictured in 2018)
Much of the tension between Cher and Elijah has stemmed from his estranged wife Marieangela King.
Elijah married Marieangela, 36, who goes by the name Queenie in the rock band KING, in 2013. They have no children.
King, who was born in Mumbai, India, to a British father and German mother and whose childhood was spent in 30 different countries, is one of six siblings who have played at various times in KING.
Cher, 77, has long had a contentious relationship both with Elijah and her daughter-in-law Marieangela, who he met in Germany after he going there for treatment for a particularly bad case of Lyme Disease.
The movie and music icon allegedly did not congratulate the newlyweds after they eloped and refused even to acknowledge their engagement.
She has often gone months and even years without even speaking to her son, who she packed off too boarding school when he was just eight.
Hiring a caretaker
In early September, Cher hired a caretaker to keep an eye on her troubled son, who had taken to leaving the hotel (pictured with her bodyguard visiting her son)
In early September, Cher hired a caretaker to keep an eye on her troubled son, who had taken to leaving the hotel and wandering down the street.
‘The caretaker would sit out in the entrance area of the hotel just waiting to see where and what Elijah was up to.’
But things came to a head on September 14, the day that Cher had planned an intervention with her son, DailyMail.com learned.
Before that could happen, hotel staff found his lifeless body, lying face down on the pavement leading to the hotel entrance with his arms by his side. The hotel staff picked him up and took him inside.
Two days later police arrived and escorted Elijah out of the hotel, the source said. He was then taken for yet another stint in rehab.
Kidnap claims
In September Cher was accused of hiring four men to kidnap her son from a hotel room just as he was trying to reconcile with his wife on their wedding anniversary (pictured in 2001)
In September Cher was accused of hiring four men to kidnap her son from a hotel room just as he was trying to reconcile with his wife on their wedding anniversary.
The Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winner was worried about Elijah Blue Allman’s health, her daughter-in-law, Marieangela King said in a declaration to a Los Angeles court hearing the couple’s divorce.
In her declaration to the court, King said she and Elijah had spent 12 days in New York trying to work on their marriage.
‘Given the proper time I believe that we will reconcile,’ she said.
But their attempts to kiss and make up were interrupted, she wrote.
‘On November 30, 2022, the night of our wedding anniversary, four people came to our hotel room and removed (Elijah) from our room.
‘I was told by one of the four men who took him that they were hired by (Elijah’s) mother.
In the declaration, filed four days after the alleged kidnapping, she added: ‘I am currently unaware of my husband’s wellbeing or whereabouts,’ although she added that he was in ‘lockdown at a treatment facility that is undisclosed to me’.
She finished the statement with the words ‘I understand his family’s efforts to make sure he is well, and I want what is best for my husband.’
In October, Cher spoke with People about King’s past claims that Cher had kidnapped Elijah, calling them ‘not true.’
She added: ‘I’m not suffering from any problem that millions of people in the United States aren’t. I’m a mother. This is my job – one way or another, to try to help my children.
‘You do anything for your children. Whenever you can help them, you just do it because that’s what being a mother is.
‘But it’s joy, even with heartache – mostly, when you think of your children, you just smile and you love them, and you try to be there for them.’
Marieangela’s accusations
She also said that Cher had kicked her out of the house where she was living after Elijah started unspecified ‘medical care’ in August 2022.
In her declaration to the court, Marieangela also said she could not pay her lawyers because Elijah’s spousal support payments were sporadic.
‘I have only received $25,000 total, half of the support owed,’ she said.
She also said that Cher had kicked her out of the house where she was living after Elijah started unspecified ‘medical care’ in August 2022.
‘I had lost both my housing and healthcare and had to leave the country to stay with relatives for a while,’ she said.
‘In my husband’s absence, I was asked to leave our family home by (Elijah’s) mother.
‘I was not allowed to retrieve all my belongings from our primary home and residence, nor was I given the opportunity to inventory our assets.’
She also said she had not been able to get her property from a storage unit which contained ‘one-of-a-kind art pieces, antiques and musical instruments’ that needed to be valued before the divorce’.
Cher files for a conservatorship
In December 2023, Cher filed court papers seeking to place Elijah Blue Allman in a conservatorship, claiming he’s addicted to drugs
In December 2023, Cher filed court papers seeking to place Elijah Blue Allman in a conservatorship, claiming he’s addicted to drugs, unable to mange his financial affairs, and deals with health issues both physically and mentally.
She said in court documents reviewed by TMZ that Elijah is ‘substantially unable to manage his own financial resources due to severe mental health and substance abuse issues.’
A court date has been set up for March 6, 2024 on the issue, according to the outlet.
Cher said that Elijah receives interval payments from a trust Allman set up, and that she’s worried he will use his money to obtain more drugs instead of paying essential expenses.
The If I Could Turn Back Time singer said that as Elijah’s mother, she is best suited to be the conservator, and has received internal family support on the issue.
Cher said Elijah’s estranged wife Marieangela King, 36, has been a destructive presence in his life and is impeding efforts to have him get the help he needs with drug and mental health issues.
The If I Could Turn Back Time singer said that as Elijah’s mother, she is best suited to be the conservator, and has received internal family support on the issue.
Cher said Marieangela has been a destructive presence in his life and is impeding efforts to have him get the help he needs with drug and mental health issues.
