The hidden health battle behind Cher’s ‘chaotic’ Grammy’s appearance

Pop legend Cher caused a stir at the Grammys last night, accidentally announcing Luther Vandross – who died 20 years ago – as winner of an award meant for Kendrick Lamar. 

Shortly before that, the 79–year–old had been ‘surprised’ while presenting the record of the year award by Trevor Noah, who handed her a lifetime achievement award. 

Cher then left the stage, only to have to be called back to finish presenting the award.

The Believe star joked that she had expected her lines to be on the teleprompter, when in fact she was required to read the winners name from a card in an envelope – and when she did so, said it was ‘Luther Gandross [sic]’.

Fans erupted online, suggesting Cher may have been ‘high’ – but other commentators suggested there could be a more logical explanation: dyslexia.

Cher has been open about her life–long struggle with the learning disability that affects how the brain processes written language and causes difficulties with reading and writing.

She has also admitted to suffering from dyscalculia, a related condition that affects numerical and math abilities.

Together they are conditions that affect up to one in five of the population – roughly 40 million Americans – and Cher has been praised for her advocacy on the subject. So just how has it affected the singer, and what are the signs you too might be affected?

School struggles were ‘a nightmare’

Cher – born Cherilyn Sarkisian, on May 20, 1946 – has described her childhood in 1950s Southern California as difficult.

In her 2024 autobiography, Cher: The Memoir Part One, she detailed being placed in a Catholic orphanage as an infant, struggling with undiagnosed dyslexia, and her mother’s rocky relationships and financial struggles.

At an event, discussing the book she reveals how she felt the condition had helped improve her recall of events. 

‘Sometimes when God takes one thing, they give you something else,’ she said. ‘I can see myself in the place, I know where the person was standing. I sometimes know what I was wearing.’

Speaking on UK TV show ‘This Morning’, she said: ‘I guess it did have an impact but when you’re living your life, you don’t like things but you don’t think there will be trauma later. 

‘I was very popular at school, I was a great athlete and I was funny and I could sing. My schoolwork was a trauma when it was happening because I’m dyslexic so it was a nightmare.’

After failing several classes, Cher dropped out of high school her junior year – and fled to Hollywood to pursue a careen in entertainment. 

‘I got really bad grades – Ds and Fs and Cs in some classes, and As and Bs in other classes,’ Cher recalled in an interview. ‘In the second week of the 11th grade, I just quit.’

In addition to reading difficulties, she struggled with math, which she once compared to ‘trying to understand Sanskrit’ 

How Cher manages to memorize scripts 

Cher discovered she had dyslexia at the age of 30, years after struggling through school where teachers believed she simply ‘wasn’t trying hard enough.’

She described school as a constant struggle, explaining that she learned almost everything by listening rather than reading.

‘My report cards always said that I was not living up to my potential,’ she said.

By the time Cher finally received answers, she was already a mother of two. The turning point came when her son Chaz Bono, then 10, began struggling with reading.

Cher took him to a testing center, where specialists diagnosed Chaz with dyslexia. Because the condition often runs in families, doctors asked Cher about her own experiences with reading and writing.

 ‘I told them how my mind raced ahead of my hand, how I’d skip letters in the middle of a word,’ she wrote in The First Time. 

‘I told them how I kept transposing numbers, and that I’d get so cranky trying to dial long-distance calls that someone would finally have to take the phone and dial the number for me.’

It was then that experts told Cher she, too, had learning differences.

‘It was like a big, Ohhh…’ she said. ‘Now I understood everything – why I had so much trouble with school. It all fit together.’

Rather than holding her back, Cher has said her dyslexia pushed her to develop alternative ways of learning – adaptations that helped her defy the odds and build a hugely successful career in music, television, and film.

In her book, she explains that reading scripts has always been a two-stage process. First, she reads painstakingly slowly to understand the meaning. 

Once she has decoded it, she is able to memorize the material remarkably quickly.

The same challenges shaped the audiobook of Cher: The Memoir. While she narrated the introduction to each chapter herself, actor Stephanie J. Block – who portrayed Cher on Broadway – completed the chapters.

Cher explained that reading an entire book aloud was simply too difficult to sustain because of her dyslexia.

Like many actors with dyslexia, including Tom Cruise, Cher says she relies heavily on her auditory strengths. By listening and building vivid mental images of scenes, she anchors lines in her memory without needing to rely on the written word during performance.

It’s a method that has served her well – helping her win an Academy Award for Moonstruck in 1988 and cement her status as one of entertainment’s most enduring stars. 

Honored by the President for her advocacy  

Today, Cher uses her platform to raise awareness about learning disabilities. 

She is famously candid about her dyslexia on social media. When a fan asked on Twitter if she would ‘turn back time’ and change her dyslexia, she responded: ‘No! It caused pain, but it’s me!’.

She serves as a member of the Understood Board of Advocates, working with the nonprofit to empower the millions of people who learn and think differently.

Her accomplishments were recognized by President Reagan on October 31, 1985 when Cher was included among several other prominent people as ‘outstanding learning disabled achievers’ in a ceremony in the White House. 

Her lifelong journey with dyslexia is a primary narrative thread in The Cher Show, her biographical Broadway musical, which depicts the bullying and shame she faced in school to inspire audiences.

Hidden signs of dyslexia that many miss 

An estimated 15–20 per cent of people show signs of dyslexia, yet many adults remain undiagnosed.

In the US alone, around 40 million adults are thought to be affected, but only a small fraction ever receive a formal diagnosis, often due to limited access to testing.

For many, dyslexia isn’t identified until their 30s or 40s, after years of unexplained struggles. It commonly shows up as persistent difficulty with reading, spelling and time management, though problems can be masked by coping strategies developed over time.

The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity says one key clue is a lifelong pattern dating back to childhood – including early problems with reading and spelling, slow reading speed, and little interest in reading for pleasure.

Adults may also experience lingering oral language difficulties, such as reduced verbal fluency, frequent fillers like ‘um’, imprecise word choice, and anxiety when speaking. They may mispronounce names, stumble over certain words, or struggle to retrieve them – leading to ‘tip of the tongue’ moments and confusion between similar-sounding terms.

Even when they achieve good grades, many describe feeling ‘dumb’ or fear others think they are. Reading can be so mentally draining it causes intense fatigue, while writing may feel slow and effortful. Some skip words or lines when reading or avoid text-heavy tasks altogether.

Organisational issues are also common, including difficulty keeping appointments, meeting deadlines, remembering instructions, or processing sequences and numbers.

The International Dyslexia Association offers an adult dyslexia screening test. 

Those flagged as potentially affected are advised to seek specialist advice or a formal diagnostic assessment.