Cher will have to cover her own $1 million legal bill from her long-running royalties dispute with Mary Bono, widow of her former husband Sonny Bono, despite ultimately winning the core legal battle. A federal judge ruled that although Cher prevailed in December 2025, the rules that would have compelled Mary to reimburse her legal costs did not apply, since the dispute centred on contract law rather than federal copyright law.

Judge John A. Kronstadt's final judgment, signed on 26 November 2025, confirmed that Mary could not use the Copyright Act to reclaim the 50% share of Sonny's composition royalties that Cher was granted in their 1978 divorce settlement. Cher also retains the right to be paid royalties directly, even after selling her rights to Irving Azoff's Iconic Artists Group in 2022, denying Mary's wish to route payments through the estate instead. However, Cher was still denied recovery of her $1,023,605 legal costs, and a separate appeal by Mary over royalties from hits such as "I Got You Babe" remains pending before a federal appeals court.