Cher Accused Of Hiring 4 Men To 'Kidnap' Her Adult Son, According To His Wife Who Has Not Heard From Him Since
Many are applauding Cher for 'doing whatever it takes' to get her son help, though she denies the allegations.
Joe Seer, Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock; PANAGIOTIS LAMPRAKIS, Billion Photos / Canva Hollywood legend Cher is no stranger to struggle when it comes to parenting her children, Elijah Blue Allman and Chaz Bono. And, recently, it seems as if those difficulties have gone to another level entirely.
Recently released court documents contain shocking accusations leveled at Cher by the estranged wife of Allman, Cher's son with ex-husband and late singer-songwriter Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers.
Cher is accused of having her son kidnapped.
The allegation was made by Elijah Blue Allman's estranged wife, Marie Angela King, in a December 4, 2022 court declaration that was part of their ongoing divorce case, which was filed by Allman himself in 2021, approximately one year before the alleged kidnapping.
King, also known by her stage name Queenie, claims in the filings that Allman was kidnapped by four men from their New York City hotel room on November 30, 2022, during a trip the pair took to celebrate their anniversary and begin "working on [their] marriage." King said in the court filings she "was told by one of the four men who took him that they were hired by [Allman's] mother."
The alleged kidnapping is believed to be part of an intervention staged by Cher to get Allman into substance abuse treatment.
In the court filings, King said that she is "currently unaware of my husband's well-being or whereabouts" and that Allman had been in rehab since August of 2022.
"I am very concerned and worried about him,” she wrote, going on to say that, “since August 2022, I have been told that I am not allowed to see or speak to [Allman] who is currently in lockdown at a treatment facility that is undisclosed to me. I am also told [Allman] has no access to his phone."
Allman has been open about his struggles with substance abuse in the past, revealing in 2014 that he was just a preteen when he first began using drugs. Allman's father also struggled extensively with addiction. He died of liver cancer in 2017.
Allman has also been open about his difficult relationship with Cher and their previous estrangements, and King alleges that Cher kicked her out of her home without an opportunity to retrieve her belongings when Allman left for rehab in August of 2022. Cher denies King's allegations that she had Allman kidnapped, telling Access Hollywood "there is not truth to" the accusation.
Many online have supported Cher's alleged willingness to do whatever it takes to get her son help for his addiction.
To reiterate, though Cher is accused of having her son kidnapped, she has denied doing so. But if it turns out she did, she certainly wouldn't be alone in resorting to desperate measures to save her son's life, and many have applauded Cher for doing whatever it takes.
One commenter on TikTok speculated that it "sounds like the wife enables or contributes to his drug addiction and Cher is trying to get him clean." Another called Cher a "good mother trying to save her kid instead of attending his funeral." One woman who lost her husband to alcoholism wrote that she wishes she would have done the same thing, commenting, "Love will do whatever it can to save someone."
This is, of course, a thorny issue. Allman is, at the end of the day, still an adult man with rights to privacy and autonomy. And there is as of yet no consensus within the mental health and substance abuse treatment field on whether involuntary rehab actually works.
A 2016 study found "as much evidence that [compulsory treatment] is ineffective, or harmful, as there is evidence that it is effective."
But family and loved ones have the right in 37 states to petition court systems for involuntary commitment of those with substance use disorder. And as anyone who has been through the incredibly harrowing process of intervening with an addict will tell you, it is all too easy to get to a point where you will try literally anything for a ray of hope of saving the person you love from dying of their addiction.
Recovering addict, substance abuse counselor and speaker, Tim Ryan, says that's likely the place Cher found herself in, especially because he says the majority of intervention attempts with addicts are unsuccessful.
Speaking to NewsNation's Ashleigh Banfield, Ryan said the bottom line of this story is, "You have a mother who loves her son. Parents will do whatever they need to do so their children don't die." to save their addicted children's lives.
"Never give up hope," he added. "If they've got a heartbeat, they've got hope."
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.