Cher On Her Son Chaz Bono's Gender Transition: 'It Wasn't Easy'

Chicago, IL - In a wide-ranging interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, singer and Oscar-winning actress Cher discussed her son's coming out gay and eventual gender transition.

Chaz Bono first came out as a lesbian.

"It was very unlike me to, in the beginning, have a problem with Chaz being gay, and it disappeared like that," Cher said. "Then we talked about [whether Bono was] transgender for many years. And [he] would say, 'No, I don't want to [transition].' And then he went and said, 'OK, I want to do this.'"

Bono, the son of Cher and the late Sonny Bono, began transitioning in 2008. Bono's journey is documented in the 2011 film Becoming Chaz.

"But it wasn't easy," Cher said of the transition. "I remember calling, and the old [voicemail] message ...was on the phone, and that was very difficult."

"But you don't really lose them. They just are in a different shape," she said before adding that Bono is now "so unbelievably happy."

Bono, an actor, is the first transgender person to appear on ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

Cher, 74, also talked about her "love" for President-elect Joe Biden, whom she has known for 15 years.

"I adore him, I love him," she said. "And I am sorry that they are trying to hogtie him so that he can't do anything, because he's such a great man [with a] great heart."

(Related: Biden LGBT fundraiser headlined by Cher raises $2 million.)