Los Angeles, Aug 27 (IANS): Singer Cher dated younger men in the 1980s, like close friend Val Kilmer, because she says men her own age were too intimidated to ask her out.
The icon loved the cancer survivor's moving Amazon Prime Video documentary, 'Val', and the film took her right back to her romance with the 'Top Gun' star, which caused quite a stir at the time, reports aceshowbiz.com.
"He was so young," Cher told People magazine of meeting Kilmer in 1981.
"Was he 22? What was I? I don't know. Thirty something. It was a bigger deal back then," Cher, who dated 22-year-old Rob Camilletti when she was 40, said.
She said: "The truth was if I hadn't gone out with younger men, I would have never had a date. Younger men weren't intimidated by older women. But older men in my age category, they weren't having it."
Kilmer wasn't remotely worried about dating an older woman.
"He wouldn't be ashamed or think it was anything. He was a free spirit. We called ourselves Sid and Ethel. Val didn't want to yell 'Cher' and I didn't want to yell 'Val.'"
Despite being "madly in love," the two eventually split.
"I don't know how we stayed friends, we just did. We didn't try. We just were," she says.
Kilmer has credited his former love with really helping during his difficult health battle, writing in his 2020 memoir, 'I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir', "Cher stepped in and stepped up."
Cher cannot believe how brave and funny Kilmer remained as he fought throat cancer.
"He was at my house a lot of the time he was sick. He was brave the whole time. I saw how sick he was. Once when the paramedics showed up after he was so sick and coughing up blood, he looked at me and I looked at him and we both knew what we were thinking."
"Because those guys are so handsome. When one of those paramedics comes to your house, you just know you're going to see somebody who's really cute."
It wasn't all love and roses, she admitted that he can still "be a brat."
"But you forgive him. You forgive him everything," she adds. "I loved him - and I love him."