Cher drops bid to be appointed conservator of adult son

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Cher will no longer seek to be appointed conservator for her 48-year-old son, Elijah Blue Allman, lawyers for the pop icon said on Friday.

“Following mediation, the parties have privately resolved this matter,” Cher attorney Gabrielle Vidal told an LA County Superior Court judge.

In a press release, Allman’s attorneys called the development “a major legal victory.”

“This outcome allows the parties to focus on healing and rebuilding their family bond,” the statement added, “a process that began during mediation and continues today.”

Cher’s attorneys did not respond by press time to an email requesting comment on the settlement.

Cher filed a petition to become Allman’s guardian last December, describing her son as “substantially unable to manage his financial resources due to severe mental health and substance abuse issues.” Allman’s father was Gregg Allman, singer and guitarist for The Allman Brothers Band who died in 2017.

Cher added that she was “concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will immediately be spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself, and putting Elijah’s life at risk.” Her lawyer said Allman suffers from schizoaffective disorder, leading him to experience periods of psychosis.

The 78-year-old singer and actress had already lost her first attempt to be appointed as Allman’s temporary conservator. In January, Judge Jessica Uzcategui told Cher there wasn’t enough evidence that Allman was unable to manage his affairs.

“I don’t question the motivation behind Cher’s request as driven by concern for her son,” the judge said. “But fears are not evidence on which the court can make a finding.”

Uzcategui urged both sides to seek a resolution. In May, the parties agreed to pause proceedings and enter into mediation with a different superior court judge.

“Cher very much would like the opportunity to make sure she’s taken every possible step to try to resolve this informally,” Vidal told the court in May.

Elijah Blue Allman, himself a musician who has admitted to struggling with drug addiction in the past, had appeared in person at all previous hearings, looking sober and clean-shaven.

“I am doing well and do not need the help that my mother is offering,” Allman said in May, according to Rolling Stone. “There was no emergency giving rise to a conservatorship at the last hearing, and there is certainly none now.”

Accompanying Allman was his wife, singer Marieangela King. The two had been separated since 2021 but reconciled shortly before Cher filed her petition.

“Until recently, Elijah and Angela were estranged and their tumultuous relationship has been marked by a cycle of drug addiction and mental health crises,” Cher wrote in her petition. “Angela is not supportive of Elijah’s recovery and Angela actively works to keep Elijah from getting clean and sober or receiving mental health treatment that he desperately needs.”

King, meanwhile, told the New York Post in January that Allman had been coerced into “participating in an alternative medicine regimen” that included sleeping behind “a locked cage with six other individuals.”

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