Cher Posts Candid Tribute to Ex-Boyfriend Val Kilmer Following His Death

The Top Gun star died on April 1 at the age of 65.

April 2, 2025, 1:07pm

Photo by Barry King/WireImage

Cher is paying tribute to ex-boyfriend Val Kilmer after the Top Gun actor’s death due to pneumonia Tuesday at the age of 65.

The musical icon took to X (formerly Twitter) on the morning of Wednesday, April 2, to share a heartfelt message about her longtime friend and ex.

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“Will miss u, U Were Funny, crazy, pain in the ass, GREAT FRIEND,” Cher wrote in her signature social media style, adding, “Kids <3 U” before praising Kilmer’s performance in the 2012 stage production of Citizen Twain as “BRILLIANT.”

Cher went on to praise Kilmer’s courage after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, writing, “BRAVE here during ur sickness.”

American actors Cher and Val Kilmer arrive at the 56th Academy Awards, where Cher is nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Silkwood. (Photo by Bill Nation/Sygma via Getty Images)

Cher dated the Batman Forever actor for two years in the ’80s until they broke up in 1984. Years later, the Oscar-winning performer revealed during a November 2024 interview on the Howard Stern Show that she was “madly in love” with Kilmer before he “left.”

In 2021, Cher told PEOPLE that she had first met the Tombstone star at a birthday party in the ’80s, and the two “became friends because we laughed at the same things constantly,” before their relationship turned romantic.

The Moonstruck star also revealed she had helped care for Kilmer after his cancer diagnosis. “He was at my house a lot of the time he was sick. He was brave the whole time,” she said at the time. “I saw how sick he was.”

Singer Cher and actor Val Kilmer attending the BAFTA Awards hand in hand, London, March 25th 1984. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

Cher went on, “Once when the paramedics showed up after he was so sick and coughing up blood, he looked at me and I looked at him and we both knew what we were thinking. Because those guys are so handsome. When one of those paramedics comes to your house, you just know you’re going to see somebody who’s really cute.”

She gushed of the Heat actor, “He is so creative like nobody I’ve ever known and how brave he was to do it in the way that he did it. He’s an artist. He can be a brat too but you forgive him. You forgive him everything. Even when I was angry, it was still a joy. If he called, it wouldn’t matter where I was, I would go.”