Cher's Iconic 1986 Appearance on David Letterman's Show Came With a Hefty $28K Fee

One of Cher’s most iconic television appearances came in 1986 when she visited The Late Show With David Letterman. The telegenic duo verbally sparred during her segment — Cher gave him a hard time, and the comedian took the punches — but now, there is more to the story!

The resurfaced clip from a concert at the MGM National Harbor in Maryland in 2017 showed Cher telling her Letterman story. (You can see the clip here.) She was asked by the talk show host’s producers to make an appearance, but the “If I Could Turn Back Time” singer had a few conditions. “I said ‘I’d love to, for $28,000,'” she revealed while telling her fans that she had a very expensive hotel bill to pay off at the time. 

“And he said, ‘We don’t do that,’ and I said, ‘Neither do I,'” she recalled at them balking at her fee. Of course, 20 minutes later, they called her back and booked the Hollywood legend. Still, they had one major question for her and wanted to know why she usually refused to do Letterman’s show.

“Because I think Dave is really funny, and he’s really smart, but sometimes, when he has a guest on that he doesn’t like or he doesn’t respect, he can be kind of an assh***,” Cher responded. But the actual interview was a blast because the 78-year-old superstar described their interaction as “funny” and “flirty.” Of course, Letterman dared to ask, just like his producers, why she had never done the show.

“Out of my mouth, in script, comes, ‘Because I thought you were an assh***,'” she laughed. “Dave told me he was traumatized for five years. But we became friends, and he was wonderful, except last year, he wrote me a birthday card—in script—and said, at the end, ‘p.s. my mom always liked Sonny more.’ And I was thinking, ‘Oh he’s still harboring it.'” 

However, Cher made sure to visit Letterman during the final days on his late-night show before it wrapped in 2015, and they reminisced about that hilarious moment. “For a number of years, there’s something that I’ve always wanted to get straight between us… This is one thing that I really mean from the bottom of my heart, I’m not kidding, no bulls**t: I really love you and I’m going to miss you,” she sweetly said. 

Cher and Letterman will always be iconic together.

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