Cher Is Looking for a Man Who’s ‘Self-Assured and Funny’: ‘Independence’ Is ‘a Must’

Around her May 20 birthday each year, Cher likes to take stock of her life. She’s grateful to have so many blessings: good health, a career she’s still passionate about, and wonderful family and friends. The only thing that would make her world sweeter would be the love of a good man. “I’m still on the lookout,” she reveals. 

The 74-year-old singer has even urged friends to help her find someone. “She would love to meet a great guy who could deal with dating Cher,” says a pal in Closer‘s newest issue, on newsstands now. “But she’s not desperate, she is very content with her life.” As the twice-married performer says, “a man is not a necessity, a man is a luxury!”

After Cher’s late 1970s divorce from second husband Gregg Allman, her A-list love life became a tabloid staple. Over the years, she dated actors Warren Beatty, Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, as well as rockers Gene Simmons and Richie Sambora. Her most gossiped-about romance, with baker Rob Camilletti, who was 18 years her junior, was also “possibly the one true love of my life,” she told Woman’s Realm magazine. Since the 2013 end of her most recent relationship with The Heroes Project founder Tim Medvetz, Cher’s been quietly single. 

“I don’t believe in going from one [relationship] to another,” says the star, who has often stayed friends with her exes. What sort of a man would pique Cher’s interest? “He has to be self-assured and funny. She loves to laugh,” says the friend. “Strength and independence are musts. She hates neediness, whining, complaining — that completely turns her off.”

Cher confesses that she does still enjoy the company of younger men, but she’s not looking to rob the cradle. “She is not going to embarrass herself, but she plays by her own rules,” says the friend. Above everything else, Cher is an optimist who still believes in love. “If grass can grow through cement,”  she told The Times in 1998, “love can find you at every time in your life.”  

Find this story and more in this week’s issue of Closer Weekly, on newsstands now!