Cher remembers ‘brilliant’ and ‘brave’ Val Kilmer

(CNN) — Cher is remembering her late friend and former boyfriend, Val Kilmer.

Kilmer, who died Tuesday from pneumonia at the age of 65, dated in the 1980s. They had nicknames for each other, according to Cher.

“Val didn’t want to yell Cher, I didn’t want to yell Val, so we just called ourselves Sid and Ethel,” she told People magazine in 2020. “And we also called ourselves one other thing, Vallus Maximus and Cherus Reprimandus.”

The names were fitting, according to the star.

“It means what it says,” she said. “It was just kind of who I was in the household.”

They remained friends after they split, Cher said, staying in communication over the years via text and email.

“We don’t see each other all that often. He always wants me to come down to his studio, but there are a lot of people and I get embarrassed,” she told the publication. “He always wants me to come and do something, and then I just go, ‘I can’t, Vallus, I just can’t.’ Or he’ll just say, ‘Cher, come on.’”

According to Kilmer’s 2020 memoir, Cher was of great support to him after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and he even stayed in her guest house for a time.

“One night I suddenly awoke vomiting blood that covered the bed like a scene out of The Godfather. I prayed immediately, then called 911. Then alerted my hostess,” he wrote. “Cher stepped in and stepped up.”

“We became friends because we laughed at the same things constantly,” Cher said in 2021.

“It went from madly in love and laughing hysterically to respecting each other’s ability,” she said. “We had unbelievable times and then put up with some times when they weren’t [that way] because we were both alpha males. We were both individuals and neither of us was going to give up on that.”

After his passing Cher, posted a tribute on social media.

“VALUS. Will miss u,U Were Funny,crazy,pain in the a**,GREAT FRIEND,kids💜U,” she wrote on X. “BRILLIANT as Mark Twain, BRAVE here during ur sickness.”

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