Cher has filed for a conservatorship to control access to son Elijah Blue Allman’s finances, claiming he is “currently unable to manage his assets due to severe mental health and substance abuse issues,” according to court documents obtained by NBC News.
In a filing in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Wednesday, Cher said she is concerned that any funds distributed to her 47-year-old son from a trust set up by his late father, music legend Gregg Allman, “will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk.”
Cher said in the documents that the latest payment from the fund is set to be distributed to her son by Sunday and that a temporary conservator is needed to protect the money from being spent on drugs “given his ongoing mental health and substance abuse issues.”
“Elijah is currently unable to manage his finances and the distribution of funds directly to Elijah would not be in his best interests,” the filing states.
Cher and an attorney for Elijah Blue Allman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cher, 77, has petitioned to be the temporary conservator to receive payments from the trust on her son’s behalf because allowing the payments to go straight to him “will undoubtedly result in the loss of such assets.”
The filing also notes that two of Allman’s half-siblings have nominated Cher to act as a temporary conservator. Allman is Cher’s only child with her second husband, Gregg Allman, a co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band, whom she was married to from 1975 to 1979.
Allman is one of Cher’s two children she had with her first husband, Sonny Bono, along with son Chaz Bono, 54. Gregg Allman, who struggled with substance abuse issues for years in the 1970s and ’80s and died in 2017, had five children with five women.
Cher has “worked tirelessly to get Elijah into treatment and get him the help he needs” and “loves Elijah immensely and has always acted with his best interests in mind,” the filing says.
Cher, the artist behind the song “Believe” and other hits, also alleged in the filing that Elijah Blue Allman’s estranged wife, Marieangela King, is part of a “tumultuous relationship” with Allman that has been “marked by a cycle of drug addiction and mental health crises.” Allman filed for divorce from King in 2021.
Cher said in the filing that King “actively works to keep Elijah from getting clean and sober or receiving mental health treatment that he desperately needs.”
Cher alleges that King took steps to check Allman out of rehab and that she is not entitled to be the temporary conservator of his estate unless the court finds it would be in his “best interest.”
“It is not. Indeed, it would be unsafe for Elijah and his estate because Petitioner is informed and believes that the appointment of Angela as temporary conservator of Elijah’s estate would result in the immediate loss or dissipation of Elijah’s assets for self-destructive purposes,” the filing says.
King did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cher added that she has not discussed the conservator arrangement with Allman because “he is unable to form or express a preference concerning the appointment of a temporary conservator for his estate.”
She proposes to set up an account on her son’s behalf at a financial institution of her choosing in the name of the conservatorship estate and “deposit all distributions received from the Trust for Elijah’s benefit,” according to the filing. The estimated value of his estate is $120,000, the filing says.
An appointment hearing about the temporary conservatorship is scheduled for Jan. 5 in Los Angeles, and another hearing is scheduled for March 6.