Celebrity performer Cher has reportedly filed for a temporary conservatorship to control the financial affairs of her son, saying he’s struggling with “severe” mental health issues and is unable to make the right financial decisions.
In documents acquired by entertainment tabloid TMZ, the 77-year-old singer claimed that her 47-year-old son, Elijah Blue Allman, is “substantially unable to manage his own financial resources due to severe mental health and substance abuse issues.”
Cher said Mr. Allman receives regular payouts from a trust set up by his late father, singer-songwriter Gregg Allman, noting that she’s concerned her son will use the money to buy drugs rather than to use it for basic living necessities.
She also argues that as his mother, she’s in the best position to serve as his conservator. The documents, which were filed on Dec. 27, also note that two of her son’s siblings have agreed their mother should be responsible for looking after their brother’s financial affairs.
According to the publication, a court hearing on whether Cher will become a conservator of his estate has been set up for March 6, 2024.
In the United States, a conservatorship is a court order that appoints a guardian or protector to oversee the personal or financial responsibilities of someone unable to manage those affairs due to age, physical, or mental limitations.
Meanwhile, Cher also accused her son’s estranged wife, Marieangela King, of not supporting Mr. Allman’s recovery, alleging the 36-year-old has interfered with efforts at getting her son clean and receiving the mental health and substance abuse treatment he needs.
Ms. King—who goes by the name “Queenie” in the British pop/hip hop band KING—married Mr. Allman in December 2013. The couple broke up in April 2020 and Mr. Allman ultimately filed for divorce the next year.
In several recent Instagram posts, Mr. Allman included the hashtag #ImprisonmentViaConservatorship. In one of the posts dated Dec. 19, he included a picture of actor Tim Robbins in his portrayal of imprisoned banker Andy Dufresne in the Academy Award-nominated film “The Shawshank Redemption.”
The court filing comes about two months after Cher opened up about her son’s alleged drug addiction during an interview with People magazine.
“I’m not suffering from any problem that millions of people in the United States aren’t,” the singer said of watching her son’s struggles with illegal substances.
“I’m a mother. This is my job—one way or another, to try to help my children,” she added. “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.”
Allman’s Past Statements
In 2014, Mr. Allman revealed during an interview with Entertainment Tonight that he began using drugs at a very young age.
“I would come home on the weekend and me and my friends would go up to Harlem and get into all kinds of trouble. It’s actually shocking to think about myself at like 11 years old buying drugs in Harlem. It’s pretty crazy. It seemed normal at the time,” he told the outlet.
Mr. Allman said he initially started by smoking weed and taking ecstasy, but he later turned to harder drugs, including heroin.
“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 said.
“I did have some close calls and some moments of really feeling at the edge of mortality … I always kind of kept it a little bit safe but you never can do that,” the musician and artist said. “The wrong combination of things can happen and you can just slip into the abyss. I knew it was wrong and I knew that I was very unsatisfied with life at that point.”
He claimed at the time that he’d been sober since 2008.