UPDATED 6//17/2024
Many people know about Cher’s son Chaz Bono with late ex-husband Sonny Bono, but many don’t realize that she had a son named Elijah with second ex-husband Gregg Allman. Elijah’s relationship with his parents hasn’t always been easy, but now he is 47 years old and working as a musician just like his famous parents.
Know professionally as P. Exeter Blue I, he recorded five albums with Deadsy and has been a featured musical performer on a variety of other records by different artists.
Elijah once shared how he felt “shunned” as a child because he was sent away to boarding school. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight back in 2014, he expressed, “When you go to boarding school at 7-years-old, it’s kind of hard to feel like you’re not being shunned. But I’m at an age where I’m making peace with it, because you just have to. But it doesn’t mean it’s right. It’s still wrong to do that.”
He also struggled with Lyme disease when he was younger, but eventually healed after treatment in Germany. Elijah actually met his wife Marleangela “Angie” King while receiving treatments in Germany, though their eventual nuptials led to even more family drama.
Learn more about Cher and Gregg Allman’s son Elijah Blue Allman
The couple eloped in 2013 and only invited a few friends to the wedding. Elijah revealed that his mother did not congratulate him on his engagement and it was one of the reasons they decided to elope instead of planning a wedding with family.
“I wasn’t going to wait for anyone’s approval and congratulations, just like I’ve never waited for any of that my whole life,” he told the Daily Mail. “The way I eloped with my wife is the same way I’ve done everything I’ve ever done. I don’t know any other way and we knew it was the right time.”
Unfortunately, the marriage has been a rocky one. They broke up in 2020, with Allman filing for divorce the next year — though by all reports, in the end the divorce was dismissed and they’re still together.
At the same time, it doesn’t mean that things have been easy. For starters, Elijah admitted in 2014 that he’s been taking drugs since he was 11, and that addiction was still an issue in his life. Flash forward to 2023, and Angie alleged in a court filing that when she and her husband were attempting to work on their relationship, Cher supposedly had him kidnapped from a hotel they were in.
That same year, and due to his ongoing drug addiction, Cher filed for conservatorship. Reported nbclosangeles.com in December 2023, “Cher alleges that King has been a destructive presence in Allman’s life and is impeding efforts to have him get the help he needs with drugs, including recently trying to check him out of a treatment center where he was receiving much needed medical care. She concludes that if King were to be appointed conservator, Allman’s estate would suffer ‘the immediate loss or dissipation of Elijah’s assets for self-destructive purposes,'” according to the documents filed.
Elijah himself told the Associated Press, “I am well and able and of sound mind and body.”
The application for conservatorship was denied on January 30, 2024.
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After receiving his first guitar from Gene Simmons himself, Elijah decided he wanted to make a career in music, starting the group Deadsy at age 19, releasing five albums between 1995’s Demo and 2006’s Phantasmagore, with another on the way. Additionally, he’s been a featured musician on 10 other records.
Connecting with Chaz?
Since Elijah has had a rocky relationship with his parents, did he have that same relationship with Chaz Bono? While Elijah and Chaz are stepbrothers, Elijah admitted that they were only close when they were kids, but went off in different directions as they entered their teenage years. At the same time, it doesn’t sound like there is any bad blood between them at least.
“We were close,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “I think what happened was Chaz went off to a performing arts school back east and I went off back east as well, later to prep school, so from there we took different paths. But for a minute growing up, we were kind of close. We have our issues, but you don’t have any choice if you want to be a balanced person, but to ultimately heal. But there’s unresolved stuff for sure.”
It sounds like there’s a lot of that in Elijah’s life.
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