Cher Talks About Chaz Bono’s Gender Change: “It’s Hard, ’cause She’s Still My Girl.”

It seems like the rest of the world has been very careful to refer to Chaz Bono as “he” since the only child of Cher and Sonny Bono announced his transition from female to male last year.

But his superstar mother, in various interview promoting her new movie Burlesque, keeps referring to Chaz as “she” and only catching herself sometimes.

In Sunday’s issue of Parade, Cher spoke movingly of her child who used to appear with her and ex-husband Bono on their 70s variety show: “When Chaz first told me about wanting a sex change, I had a really hard time with it. We talked about the transgendered thing intermittently for years. She was unhappy. Plus, she was doing drugs. [Chaz was addicted to Oxycontin]. I believed that once she stopped doing drugs, she would have a much better life and put the transgender idea on the back burner.”

But after getting sober in 2004, Chaz became more determined than ever.

“She said to me, ‘If I’m ever going to do it, I’ve got to do it now. I’m 40,’” Cher recalls. “I went, ‘If you’ve got to do it dear, you’ve got to do it.’”

In May, Chaz’s gender and name were legally changed.

“When I realized she was going to do it, it was rocky for me. I thought, ‘What will the press do to her?’ What will they do to the two of us together? It’s going to be the biggest nightmare that will not stop. But the press has been kinder than I thought they would be.”

“It’s hard ’cause she’s still my girl. But she has an inner strength and she’s a courageous person – she believes what she believes. She and her girlfriend came over here for dinner last night.”

Good to see that Cher and Chaz are close and supportive of each other. Now if only Cher could start to refer to her child as “he".

Chaz Bono's Girlfriend Completely Supports Her

Chaz Bono says his girlfriend of four years, Jennifer Elia, has been completely supportive during his process of becoming a man. Now, he says, his gender reassignment surgery allows the couple to physically have what they've always had emotionally: a heterosexual relationship.

"She's been amazing," Bono, 40, tells Entertainment Tonight in the second part of a two-part interview, airing Friday. "I feel really grateful to be going through this with a partner."

Elia knew his intentions from the start, Bono says. "I didn't just spring this on Jennifer recently. This was something she knew about shortly after we met."

He adds: "Our relationship always modeled a heterosexual relationship, emotionally and intellectually. So now it does physically as well."

Bono has said he felt male from the time he was a child. "I feel like I'm living in my body for the first time, and it feels really good," he tells ET.

In June, Bono's mother, Cher, told People magazine she supported the decision to pursue a sex change. "The one thing that will never change is my abiding love for my child," she said.

Chaz Bono Talks About Becoming a Man

As the only child of the late Sonny Bono and pop culture icon Cher, there was no way Chaz Bono was going to be able to quietly transition from life as a woman to a man.

But that seems to be fine with this courageous writer and activist who has become increasingly public about his new life as a man and about what such a transition entails. Chaz gave an exclusive interview to Entertainment Tonight’s Mary Hart which will air Thursday and Friday.

“[I'm] trying to use my life experience to educate people,” Chaz says in the interview previewed today on Huffington Post. “I feel more like myself more than I ever felt. I feel happier and more confident. I used to live most of my life in my head because I was so uncomfortable in my body. The most important thing about this for me is that my outsides are finally starting to match my insides. I feel like I’m living in my body for the first time and it feels really good.”

About his life-changing decision, Chaz tells Mary, “It wasn’t a sudden decision. I’ve been doing therapy for a long time. It’s a long process going back almost a decade. I got clean and sober in 2004 and I couldn’t have done this before that.”

Millions of fans of the old Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour well remember the cute little blonde girl whose parents would sometimes bring out at the end of the show for a little bit of fun.

But there was more than met the eye.

“I always felt like the male from the time I was a child,” Chaz said. “There wasn’t much feminine about me. I believe that gender is something between your ears not between your legs. That is something I discovered in the early 90’s. It was just a long process of being comfortable enough to do something about it. I was turning 40 and I thought it’s now or never. I want to still feel vibrant and be able to enjoy my life in a male body and not wait until I am an old man.”

Chaz said he began taking male hormones in March which have lowered his voice and has started to shave the “peach fuzz” off of his face about once a week.

[I'm] still not anywhere near what I will look like but really for the first time I am feeling much more comfortable with how I look physically,” he said.

Chaz Bono Writing Sex Change Memoir

Cher's daughter Chastity Bono is writing her memoir to document her sex change from a woman to a man.

The pop superstar's child, now known as Chaz, began the lengthy gender reassignment process last year and now prefers to be referred to as a 'he'.

News of actress/writer Bono's sex change surgery was revealed in June - and now he is set to cash in on his story after selling the rights to his autobiography to publishing house Dutton.

According to TMZ.com, Bono - who announced he is gay in 1995 - received "a handsome, six-figure deal" for the book.

The tentatively titled "Coming Clean" will hit stores in 2011.

Cher on Chaz’s Transition: “The One Thing That Will Never Change is My Abiding Love for My Child.”

Gay icon Cher, who went through a process to accept that her daughter, Chastity Bono, is gay, admitted to People that she has more to process now that Chastity is begun the process of transitioning into a man named Chaz Bono.

“Chaz is embarking on a difficult journey, but one that I will support,” said the 63 year old legend. “I respect the courage it takes to go through this transition in the glare of public scrutiny, and although I may not understand, I will strive to be understanding.”

Cher added: “The one thing that will never change is my abiding love for my child.”

People also reports that Chaz plans to have surgery, which could include a double mastectomy. He is also taking testosterone to change both his body and voice.

Chastity Bono Undergoing Sex Change

Political and social activist Chastity Bono, the only child of entertainers Cher and the late Sonny Bono, began undergoing a sex change shortly after her 40th birthday on March 4th.

"Cher is very supportive and has known about Chastity wanting to do this for a very long time," a source told People. "This will be a long process but it's something Chastity has wanted to do for many years."

Bono's spokesman, Howard Bragman, told TMZ, which first reported the story, "Yes, it's true - Chaz [Chastity's using this as his new name], after many years of consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity.

"He is proud of his decision and grateful for the support and respect that has already been shown by his loved ones. It is Chaz's hope that his choice to transition will open the hearts and minds of the public regarding this issue, just as his 'coming out' did nearly 20 years ago."

He added, "We ask that the media respect Chaz's privacy during this long process as he will not be doing any interviews at this time."

Cher 'Flipped Out'

According to a 1998 People article about Bono, at the time she published her book, Family Outing, a guidebook of real-life examples (including her own) that showed young gay people the rewards and pitfalls that accompany being open about their sexuality, Bono first decided to tell her parents she was gay when she was a freshman at New York University in fall 1987. Father Sonny took the news in stride, but mother Cher did not.

"I flipped out," Cher told People. "I'd always had this idea that she would get married and have a family." And though Cher had won acclaim for her portrayal of a gay woman in the 1983 film Silkwood, and has counted upon gay audiences for being among her staunchest fans, she banished her daughter from her Manhattan apartment. Later, when Chastity decided to abandon her studies to pursue a career as a rock singer, she chose to keep her homosexuality a secret.

It didn't work. While she was trying to launch a career with her band Ceremony in 1990, a weekly tabloid announced Bono's lesbianism to the world. Besieged by reporters, she also felt betrayed by members of the gay community, who had tipped off the tabloid.

"It was the most traumatic thing that ever happened to me," she said in 1998. Bono felt completely at sea. "I closed my blinds at home," she said. "I didn't have a life, really."

Parents Accepted

In 1992 she began a serious relationship with "Joan," a woman 20 years her senior, which ended tragically when the woman lost a battle with lymphoma and died in 1994. Finally, in 1995, Bono publicly embraced gay activism by posing for the cover of the gay magazine The Advocate, proclaiming herself "out at last" and taking a high-profile job with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

Bono's activism transformed her relationship with both parents, sparking pride in her mother, who "got to see me as a full person for the first time," said her daughter. But Sonny was by then a Republican congressman whose conservative agenda did not include gay causes such as legalizing same-sex marriage. "He accepted me, but his politics didn't," Chastity recalled. (Sonny Bono died in January 1998.) "I didn't talk to him about it, but I was angry."