Cher gave fans a glimpse at her playful and sassy relationship with ex-boyfriend Val Kilmer by penning a cheeky tribute after his death.
“Will miss u,” Cher, 78, wrote via X on Wednesday, April 2, one day after Kilmer died of pneumonia at the age of 65.
She teased, “U Were [a] Funny, crazy, pain in the ass, GREAT FRIEND.”
The Grammy winner noted, “Kids💜U,” before singing Kilmer’s praises as an actor. “BRILLIANT as Mark Twain,” Cher pointed out, seemingly referring to his portrayal of the iconic figure in his one-man show, Citizen Twain, which he also wrote. (Kilmer also played Mark Twain in 2014’s Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn and was a fan of all-things Twain.)
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Cher also applauded Kilmer for his hard-fought battle against cancer, which began in 2015 when he was diagnosed with throat cancer. (He didn’t reveal his diagnosis publicly until 2017.)
“BRAVE here during ur sickness,” Cher added.
The Moonstruck actress addressed her late friend as “Valus” to start the post as well, which was a nickname she had for him when they were dating in the early ‘80s.
Cher previously spoke about the origin of their nicknames in 2021, telling People, “Val didn’t want to yell ‘Cher’ and I didn’t want to yell ‘Val.’ We also called ourselves Valus Maximus and Cherus Reprimandus.”
Cher, who met Kilmer at one of her birthday parties, revealed, “It was just kind of who I was in the household. Of course, he was Maximus, come on.”
She noted, “We became friends because we laughed at the same things constantly.” Despite their 13-year age gap, Cher and Kilmer soon became lovers.
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“He would sleep over, and it was just a friendship [at first]. That took a long time. Well, I guess not really a long time,” Cher added.
The pair dated from 1982 to 1984 and, according to the musician, it was Kilmer who called off the romance.
“Look, I was madly in love with Val Kilmer and he left … because sometimes you’re only meant to stay with someone for so long,” Cher revealed during a November 2024 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, noting, “Val was really young.”
Although the Top Gun actor ended his relationship with Cher after two years, the pair remained friends long after their romantic split. In fact, Cher offered up her guest house to Kilmer in 2015 when he was battling throat cancer.
“One night I suddenly awoke vomiting blood that covered the bed like a scene out of The Godfather. I prayed immediately, then called 911. Then, alerted my hostess. Cher stepped in and stepped up,” Kilmer recalled in his 2020 memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry. “And yet even in my grave condition, I saw her scanning the paramedic, who was Gregory Peck drop-dead handsome. Only in Hollywood, right?”
Kilmer remembered being “covered in blood” but still managing to catch Cher’s eye and bounce his eyebrows “like Groucho Marx. Hubba Hubba.” He wrote that Cher was “bashful” but then “couldn’t help laughing out loud at the audacity.”
Related: Stars React to Val Kilmer’s Death at 65
Hollywood stars are mourning the death of Val Kilmer. The Top Gun actor died of pneumonia on Tuesday, April 1, his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, told The New York Times. Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015 and featured in a July 2021 documentary about his life, titled Val, which showed him requiring a breathing […]
He recalled the funny moment distracting them both from the scary ordeal that was unfolding. “Here we were, joking about beauty and desire, while I looked like a stunt man from Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and, yes, while my life seemed to be in mortal danger,” Kilmer added. “We laughed out loud before they finished with my vitals and shut me up with an oxygen mask.”
Kilmer battled throat cancer for some time before receiving a clean bill of health in 2016. However, during his fight, he underwent tracheostomy surgery, which permanently damaged his vocal cords.
Kilmer’s daughter, Mercedes, confirmed her father’s death on Tuesday, revealing he passed away in Los Angeles. The Batman Forever actor is survived by Mercedes, 33, and son Jack, 29, whom he shares with ex-wife Joanne Whalley. The exes were married from 1988 to 1996.
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