Cher's Fiery Legal Battle With Her Son Elijah Blue Allman Explained

Cher and Elijah Blue Allman had a contentious relationship for years that came to a head when the singer filed for a conservatorship over her son, who had a history of drug abuse. On January 4, 2024, the "Believe" singer filed a motion for a temporary conservatorship over the money her son receives from a trust set up by his late father, musician Gregg Allman. Cher contested that any money Elijah received would be "spent on drugs," per court documents obtained by Page Six. The singer said she thought accessing the trust left her son's "life at risk."

That same day, Elijah filed his own court documents to block the conservatorship. "I am clean and sober from illicit substances for over 90 days now," he wrote in documents obtained by Page Six in a separate article. Elijah and his wife, Marieangela King, had been working on reconciling. "I believe that my wife would have priority to be appointed conservator, if necessary, but I do not need that, either," Elijah added. On January 5, 2024, a judge denied Cher's attempt at becoming conservator and said Elijah's legal team did not have sufficient time to prepare all the required documents, per the Associated Press. The case was moved out until a later date.

Meanwhile, starting on December 19, 2023, Elijah made several posts on his Instagram page that seemed to address the matter as he added the hashtag "#imprisonmentviaconservatorship" in the caption. This was only the latest chapter in the messy saga between Cher and Elijah.

A bombshell was dropped in December 2022 when court documents alleged that Cher had hired men to kidnap Elijah Blue Allman to keep him from using drugs. The court documents were filed by Allman's wife, Marieangela King, and pertained to their divorce. King said that she and Allman had stayed in a hotel together for 12 days to work on their relationship when four men — hired by Cher — showed up and took him away. "I am currently unaware of my husband's wellbeing or whereabouts. I am very concerned and worried about him," King said in the documents published by People in September 2023.

Cher addressed the kidnapping accusations a month after they were made public. "[T]hat rumor is not true," she told People in October 2023. "I'm a mother. This is my job — one way or another, to try to help my children," she told the outlet. The "If I Could Turn Back Time" artist also addressed the allegations that same month when speaking to the New York Post. "I didn't do it, and if I did it, I wouldn't say I did it," she told the outlet while adding that a mother's job was never done.

Around the same time that King's kidnapping allegations came to light, a report from the Daily Mail claimed that Allman had overdosed while staying at the famed Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard and that Cher had hired a caretaker to watch over him. Years earlier, Allman had opened up about his drug use.

Long before Elijah Blue Allman was battling Cher in court, he opened up about his substance issues during a frank interview in February 2014. There were a few surprising revelations from Allman, including that he started using drugs around 11-years-old. "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 told Entertainment Tonight at the time. In fact, he believed drugs had helped him cope. "[Heroin] kind of saved me ... If I didn't have that at that point, I don't know what I would have done," Allman added.

Allman also spoke about his strained relationship with Cher, and how it had impacted him from a young age. "When you go to boarding school at 7 years old, it's kind of hard to feel like you're not being shunned," he told Entertainment Tonight in an article that was also published February 2014. Despite their long-running rift, Allman believed there was hope for reconciliation. "You know, man, we have our issues. We've worked through a lot of them. We've got some more to go."

According to Allman, he did not feel that his mother offered the necessary support while he was very ill with Lyme Disease. "It was very hard for my mother to accept," he told Daniel Hugo in a 2014 interview, while adding that Cher did not "stay in the trench emotionally" when he was sick (via the Daily Mail).