Cher, Who Turns 78 Today, Says She’ll Celebrate By “Putting My Pillow Over My Head and Screaming”

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published 20 May 2024

The word “icon” is far, far too overused, but when describing Cher, it’s appropriate. Today, May 20, the Grammy winner turns 78, but, according to People, she isn’t very excited about it.

While attending the premiere of the documentary Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion at the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles last week, said she planned to spend her big day by “putting my pillow over my head and screaming,” she said. When asked the same question at the same event by E! News, Cher slightly modified her plans, telling that outlet “I’m putting my head under the bed.”

Hey, to each their own, but Cher has nothing to shake her head at—she is redefining how cool it is to age and rewriting the script for what 78 “should” look like. Last year, as she celebrated her 77th birthday, she wrote on X (you know, the platform formerly known as Twitter) that she wondered when she’d start feeling her age: “Ok, Will Someone PLEASE Tell me…..When Will I Feel OLD,” she wrote. “This is ridiculous.”

She added “I keep hearing these numbers, but I Honestly can’t understand them. WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH #s!? I’m dyslexic & #s Are hard 4 me.”

This past November, Cher appeared on Good Morning Britain and further opened up about her thoughts on getting older, telling the program “I just can’t believe I will be 80 at some point—sooner than I wish,” she said. “And I will still be wearing my jeans, and I will still be wearing long hair, and I will still be doing the same stuff I’ve always done.” (Love it.)

Cher is currently dating Alexander “AE” Edwards, a 38-year-old music executive. As Marie Claire reported recently, when asked about this on The Jennifer Hudson Show earlier this month, she said “The reason I go out with young men is because men my age or older—well, now they’re all dead,” Cher said. “But before, they just never—they were always terrified to approach me.”

Happy birthday to a true queen—may we have 78 more years of your fabulousness.

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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