In 1965, Cher was invited to sing for Princess Margaret. What followed was an absolute 'fiasco'

Cher has described a royal performance she gave in front of Princess Margaret in 1965 as a "fiasco."

The 78-year-old music star has spoken about the experience in her new book Cher: The Memoir, out on December 3.

Princess Margaret, the younger sister of the late Queen Elizabeth, was in Los Angeles in the US for a "series of charitable events" with her husband Lord Snowden when Cher and her ex-husband and musical collaborator Sonny Bono were asked by the royal to perform.

At the time Sonny & Cher were making waves around the world with hit singles such as Baby Don't Go and I've Got You Babe.

"Having read all about us in the English press, the princess invited us to perform at the Hollywood Palladium," Cher writes in the memoir.

"This came as a surprise, because the old guard either had no idea who we were or thought we were freaks."

"It boggled the imagination how much that wasn't our audience. The best that could happen is we'd live through it," Cher explained.

She admits Sonny didn't want to accept the offer to perform "but we couldn't say no to Princess Margaret."

"I think we were wearing white outfits, but we should have been wearing camouflage," she jokes, adding that the "whole event was a fiasco."

Frank Sinatra was meant to introduce Sonny & Cher but he dropped out at the last minute so they were introduced by comedian and actor Bob Hope.

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The event also began late and there was no stage, leaving them standing in the dance floor.

Cher recalls Princess Margaret had laryngitis at the time and wasn't able to speak.

"The acoustics were so bad that, coupled with sound problems, we performed terribly," Cher writes.

At the time music critic Peter Bogdanovich wrote in the Saturday Evening Post that the pair "howled like a pair of coyotes."

"The audience must have agreed, because very few people applauded, and halfway through our set Princess Margaret asked for the sound to be turned down because she had a headache," Cher says.

"The engineer then accidentally cut the mic and interfered with what we could hear, which threw Sonny completely."

Cher says this made Sonny angry and they both couldn't wait for the performance to be over.

"I was mortified," Cher writes. "It was like a bad dream that we couldn't get out of; we just had to stand there and wait for it to be over."

Cher would be given a chance to redeem herself in the eyes of the British royal family. She took to the stage in 2023 for the Royal Variety Performance at Royal Albert Hall on November 30.

The concert was attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales as well as Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and her husband Prince Daniel.

Sonny and Cher divorced in 1975 and Cher launched a successful solo career.

Sonny Bono was killed in a skiing accident in 1998 at the age of 62. Princess Margaret died in 2002 at the age of 71 after a period of illness. Sonny Bono was killed in a skiing accident

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