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During Cher’s 50 years as the Goddess of Pop, there is precious little in the creative world she hasn’t accomplished.
Starting out her singing career so shy on stage that she had to talk Sonny Bono into standing with her so she could look at him instead of the audience, to branching out as a soloist in the mid-1960s and on to award-winning actress on film, stage and television, Cher has successfully tested the water in multiple entertainment categories.
Having hit their peak record sales in the early 1960s selling over 40 million records, Cher and Sonny’s careers began to nose dive in the late ‘60s with the advent of hard rock and the surging drug culture.
It wasn’t until the early ‘70s that they experienced a resurge in popularity with Cher’s new exotic wardrobe, their television show, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, and simultaneously cutting four new albums. However, with the marriage failing, Sonny and Cher divorced in 1975.
Blossoming from a young girl whose mother was often divorced and short of money, Beverly Hills might as well have been on the moon.
But by the 1970s, Cher had parlayed her talent and personality into wealth and was able to buy four acres of land on Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills, building a mansion that she was very active in designing and decorating.
Cher later sold the estate to Eddie Murphy. The current owners purchased the property in 1994 and began buying up the surrounding land and started the huge project of developing it into the 16-acre equestrian estate it is today.
Privately hidden from view by mature landscaping is the 20,000-square-foot main residence, currently at the beginning of an interior remodeling, with its 11 bedrooms, 17 baths, brick walls, stone flooring, wood-burning fireplaces and wood-beamed ceilings, combining the elements of elegance with rusticity.
Outside are stone terraces, pool, spa and outdoor kitchen. The detached 7,000-square-foot guest house has exotic appeal with its walk-through arches, Moroccan tile, coffered ceilings, hand-carved wooden doors, five bedrooms and five baths.
Also within the main house complex is a tennis court with seating and a large equestrian center with five stables and two riding rings. In addition to the rings, there is also a network of riding trails throughout the property.
Cher’s former mansion on four acres, later sold to Eddie Murphy, is for sale as a 16-acre equestrian estate – the last compound of its size in Beverly Hills. it is priced at $85 million.
