From Hollywood Romance to a Lifetime Bond, Cher’s Goodbye to Val Kilmer Blends Sass, Sorrow, and Eternal Love
Cher never forgets the people who matter and when she remembers, it’s unforgettable.
Following the death of actor Val Kilmer at age 65, the legendary singer and actress posted a short but poignant tribute on X, formerly Twitter. It was classic Cher: raw, candid, and touched with the irreverent humor that has defined her for over six decades.
“VALUS,” she began, using her longtime nickname for Kilmer. “Will miss u. U Were Funny, crazy, pain in the ass, GREAT FRIEND. Kids 💜 U. BRILLIANT as Mark Twain. BRAVE here during ur sickness.”
With that single post, Cher reopened a chapter of her life many fans remember fondly: a relationship forged in the fire of the 1980s, laced with passion and wit, and anchored by a friendship that endured through illness and fame, separation and support.
A Love Story Written in Laughter
They first met in the early 1980s at one of Cher’s birthday parties, already the perfect setting for Hollywood alchemy. She was in her mid-30s, an established music and film icon; he was 22, charismatic, wildly handsome, and brimming with ambition.
Despite their 13-year age gap, their connection was instant. “We became friends because we laughed at the same things constantly,” Cher said in a 2021 People interview. “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.”
They dated from 1982 to 1984. Though short-lived by romantic standards, the relationship left an indelible mark. Kilmer gave Cher the nickname “Cherus Reprimandus,” and in return, he became “Valus Maximus.” It was part Roman epic, part private joke, exactly the kind of theatricality that defined their bond.
“He is exasperating and hysterical,” Cher once said. “Thrilling and funny, and doesn’t do what anyone else does.”
A Romance That Turned Into Forever Friendship
Though Kilmer ultimately ended the relationship, Cher never fell out of love with who he was as a person. “I was madly in love with Val Kilmer,” she admitted on The Howard Stern Show in November 2024. “And he left… because sometimes you’re only meant to stay with someone for so long.”
But in the decades that followed, their connection never faded.
Kilmer once wrote about the unique quality of their bond in his 2020 memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry: “Cher stepped in and stepped up,” he wrote of her care during his cancer battle. It was more than just an old flame rekindled, it was friendship at its deepest level.
When the Spotlight Dims, True Friends Shine
In 2015, Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer, though he didn’t publicly confirm the diagnosis until 2017. Cher opened her doors literally offering Kilmer her guest house in Malibu as he began treatment.
“I saw how sick he was,” Cher later recalled. “He was brave the whole time.”
One night, Kilmer awoke vomiting blood. It was a terrifying scene straight out of a Hollywood thriller, but the real story was in what happened next. “I prayed immediately, then called 911. Then, alerted my hostess,” he wrote. “Cher stepped in and stepped up.”
Even in crisis, humor found a way in. Kilmer described a paramedic so handsome he caught Cher’s eye, despite Kilmer being “covered in blood.” In classic form, Kilmer bounced his eyebrows “like Groucho Marx,” prompting Cher to burst out laughing.
“Here we were, joking about beauty and desire,” Kilmer wrote, “while I looked like a stunt man from Reservoir Dogs. We laughed out loud before they finished with my vitals and shut me up with an oxygen mask.”
Their friendship endured not in spite of pain, but somehow strengthened by it.
Val Kilmer: Artist, Maverick, Survivor
Though remembered best for roles like Iceman in Top Gun, Jim Morrison in The Doors, and Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever, Kilmer’s career was filled with bold choices. He embraced Shakespeare, poetry, painting, and the theater. He was not an actor who chased fame he chased truth.
“BRILLIANT as Mark Twain,” Cher wrote in her tribute, referring to Citizen Twain, his one-man show that toured the U.S. starting in 2012. Kilmer didn’t just act he inhabited Twain’s persona, writing the show himself and performing it with the cadence of a man who’d lived the words he spoke.
Director Ron Howard, who worked with Kilmer on Willow, The Missing, and The Doors, posted his own tribute:
“His art extended to his poetry, artworks, filmmaking, and simply the way he lived.”
A Family Man at Heart
Val Kilmer is survived by his children, daughter Mercedes, 33, and son Jack, 29, whom he shared with ex-wife Joanne Whalley. The couple was married from 1988 to 1996.
Mercedes confirmed her father’s death, saying he passed peacefully from pneumonia on April 1, 2025, surrounded by family and close friends in Los Angeles. It was a quiet end to a larger-than-life presence.
While his children often stayed out of the spotlight, they were central to Kilmer’s final years visiting, supporting, and continuing his artistic legacy in their own ways.
VALUS
— Cher (@cher) April 2, 2025
Will miss u,U Were Funny,crazy,pain in the ass,GREAT FRIEND,kids💜U,
BRILLIANT as Mark Twain,
BRAVE here during ur sickness
Cher’s Final Goodbye: Bittersweet, Bold, and Unmistakably Her
Cher’s tribute was more than a celebrity remembrance; it was a eulogy in emoji and shorthand, a mix of high praise and inside jokes that only true friends can deliver.
“Funny, crazy, pain in the ass,” she said of Kilmer, no sugar-coating, no forced sentiment. Just the truth, with love behind every syllable.
It was a final note in a song they’d written together over 40 years. A duet that began in romance, shifted to friendship, and became something even deeper: loyalty. Mutual admiration. Love, without the label.
They were never meant to be forever in love but they were always meant to love each other, in their own way.
And in her tribute, Cher didn’t just remember Val Kilmer the actor. She remembered Valus, the man who made her laugh, who drove her nuts, who stayed in her life long after the credits rolled.
Epilogue: A Hollywood Goodbye That Wasn’t Pretend
Kilmer once joked about how absurd and how magical life in Hollywood could be. And in his last moments, even with an oxygen mask over his face, he still found something to laugh about. Cher, scanning the paramedics. Him, flirting through the pain. The two of them, laughing through fear.
“We laughed out loud,” he wrote, “before they finished with my vitals.”
It was one of the last shared moments in a lifetime of them. That’s the part Cher and so many fans will hold onto.
Farewell, Valus. Thank you for the laughter, the poetry, and the fight.
Featured image from Facebook: Cher