We’re used to reading story after story about the gilded lives of “nepo babies” – those who have all the perks and privileges of a very charmed life, simply by the mere fluke of being their famous parents’ children. But, sadly for many, the reality is far different, with a long line of famous offspring falling deeper into the depths of addiction and self-harm. Singer Cher is currently fighting a battle on all fronts to save her youngest son from a very tragic fate. According to insiders, the singer is beside herself with worry over the wellbeing of Elijah Blue Allman, 47, and is doing all she can to help him in his darkest hour as he spirals with addiction, despite all his efforts to push his mum away. And things are getting uglier by the day.

The Believe singer hit the headlines last week, after it emerged that she had filed to hold a conservatorship over Elijah – which would enable her to control his finances – due to his “severe mental health and substance abuse issues”.  Elijah, who is Cher’s only son with her late ex-husband, rocker Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band, is entitled to money from a trust fund. However, in court documents filed by the singer, she claims that a conservatorship is “urgently needed…to protect Elijah’s property from loss or injury” because he is “currently unable to manage his assets”. She adds that her son will be “entitled to regular distributions from the Trust, but given his ongoing mental health and substance abuse issues, [she] is concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk.”

“Cher lives in constant fear for Elijah,” says an insider close to the to the 77 year old, who’s also mum to son Chaz Bono, 54, with her late former husband, Sonny Bono. “This isn’t just about saving him from squandering his trust fund – she’s trying to save his life. His addiction is so out of control right now; every day that he isn’t in treatment is another day he could die from an overdose. It’s terrifying. Cher’s tried everything to get him help and every time she gets him into rehab, he ends up leaving. She’s willing to do whatever it takes, but no one has ever seen her this scared, and people are worried about her. Elijah is all she thinks and talks about.”

Meanwhile, as if filing for conservatorship of her adult son wasn’t painful enough, the music legend has had another battle on her hands when it comes to Elijah’s estranged wife, Marieangela King – making her plight to help him all the more complicated. In September, court documents previously filed by Mariangela resurfaced, claiming that Cher had hired four men to “kidnap” Elijah from a hotel room in an apparent intervention in late 2022. Marieangela alleged that she and Elijah – who had previously filed for divorced from her – had been working on their marriage at the time, but that Cher had employed people to keep Elijah away from her and had consistently “interfered” with her son’s “health management, as well as his location and accessibility.”

Cher denied Marieangela’s allegations, but she did stress in her conservatorship filing that her son’s “tumultuous” relationship with his ex “has been marked by a cycle of drug addiction and mental health crises” – making her involvement in his life an impediment to his recovery. As a result, we’re told the star was blindsided and “stressed” when – with days to go until she faced her son in court this week – he filed to dismiss his divorce from Marieangela, displaying an apparent united front with his ex against his worried mum, and making her attempts to help him all the more complicated.

“Cher’s not just fighting Elijah on this, she’s fighting Marieangela too,” our source reveals. “Mariangela is insisting that Elijah doesn’t need help – at least, not conventional rehab – and is going on social media to thank people for helping her get him back. A lot of people would give up at this point, but not Cher. She’s convinced that she can win this battle and get him healthy again. That’s her mission and she’s not letting anything dissuade her, but there’s no doubt this is sucking the life out of her. She can’t sleep, she can’t eat – it’s like she’s watching him drown, while he refuses every life raft she offers. But she isn’t giving up.”

With a hearing for a temporary order coming later this week, and a hearing for a permanent order scheduled for early March, we’re told that Cher is determined to save her son from a very sad fate, even if it means playing the “bad guy” in the short term. But with his reconciliation with Marieangela weakening her case, and her grief over the loss of her beloved mum, Georgia Holt (who died in December 2022) never far from her mind, our source describes Cher as being “sapped of all her spirit”. Still, as the singer herself said last week in the wake of her conservatorship filing, she has no choice but to fight for her son’s safety, no matter what. After all, it comes with the job. 

“I’m a mother. This is my job – one way or another – to try to help my children,” she told People magazine, while responding to the stories surrounding Elijah’s addiction struggles. “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.”