The pop icon is requesting a temporary conservatorship for her son Elijah Blue Allman’s estate following Allman’s recent arrests.
Cher’s son, Elijah Blue Allman, arrested after alleged assault
Cher’s son, Elijah Blue Allman, has been arrested after an alleged incident at the St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire.
Cher is seeking a conservatorship for her son Elijah Blue Allman, nearly two months after Allman was arrested in a pair of incidents.
The pop icon, 79, has requested a temporary conservatorship for her son’s estate following Allman’s recent arrests in New Hampshire, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY on Friday, April 17. Cher filed her bid to designate a conservator for Allman, 49, on Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Under California law, a conservatorship is defined as a court arrangement, in which a judge appoints a responsible person or organization to care for an adult who cannot take care of themselves or their finances.
Cher, who has nominated private fiduciary Jason Rubin to be Allman’s conservator, is asking the court to allow Rubin to oversee her son’s finances, including receiving distributions from Allman’s trust fund, managing a conservatorship account for his money and paying expenses on Allman’s behalf.
“Elijah has no concept of money and is unable to manage his financial resources and is unable to withstand fraud or undue influence,” Cher’s attorney, Justin B. Gold, wrote in the filing, noting that Allman is currently staying at a psychiatric hospital in New Hampshire following his legal troubles.
“Regarding his financial affairs alone, Elijah spends any money he gets immediately and almost exclusively on drugs, expensive hotels and limousine transportation,” Gold continued.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for April 24, according to the filing. USA TODAY has reached out to Cher’s representatives for comment.
Allman, Cher’s sole son with late Allman Brothers Band singer Gregg Allman, was arrested twice in a three-day period for incidents on Feb. 27 and March 1. He was first charged with two counts of simple assault, criminal trespassing, criminal threatening and disorderly conduct after an alleged trespassing incident at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire.
Although he was later released on personal recognizance bail, Allman was arrested again March 1 following a purported break-in at a couple’s Windham, New Hampshire, home. He was charged with burglary, two counts of criminal mischief and breach of bail.
Cher’s son ‘abandoned’ promise to improve finances after previous conservatorship attempt
In December 2023, Cher filed a request for a conservatorship for Allman, alleging he suffers from “severe mental health and substance abuse issues.” According to court documents filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the Grammy Award-winning singer claimed that her son was unable to manage his financial assets because of his alleged health issues.
Allman objected to the conservatorship in subsequent court filings, and in September 2024, Cher dropped her bid to be appointed his conservator, according to Rolling Stone. Nine months later, Allman was hospitalized for an apparent drug overdose in California.
According to Cher’s latest petition, Allman evaded the original conservatorship by telling the court he was going to “change his lifestyle.” He also said he planned to hire a business manager and had the support of his then wife, Marieangela King.
“Elijah abandoned his promises as soon as he made them,” Cher’s attorney Justin B. Gold wrote. He “made no attempt to hire [a] business manager and … returned to living wildly beyond his means by going to expensive hotels he could not afford (though most of the hotels are now refusing his patronage because of wildly destructive behavior) and ignoring basic liabilities like taxes, spousal support and appearing in court.”
The current value of Allman’s estate totals $132,000, according to court documents. Allman, whose only source of income comes from his late father’s trust, has allegedly racked up thousands of dollars in debt, which includes a $200,000 tax bill for missed payments, monthly spousal support payments to King and an $18,000 bill with a drug dealer that Allman paid with money borrowed from a friend.
The filing also details Allman’s recent pattern of allegedly unstable behavior, such as being thrown out of 18 hotels for “acting erratically,” displaying “hypersexual behavior” (including pressuring a young hotel maid into having sex) and causing several grease fires while cooking after forgetting he left food on the stove.
“Elijah’s situation has become dire on multiple fronts,” Gold wrote. “His mental health has severely deteriorated, his financial situation is terrible and his drug dependency is at its worst. [Cher] is requesting that this court enter an order appointing Mr. Rubin as temporary conservator of the estate so that Elijah’s situation can start being fixed one problem at [a] time.”
What Elijah Blue Allman has said about drug addiction
Allman opened up about his history of substance abuse in a February 2014 interview with Entertainment Tonight. “I started with drugs [weed and ecstasy] around the same time that we all did, around 11,” he told the outlet.
Looking to escape his past, “that’s when you turn to those kind of drugs, you know, heroin and opiates,” Allman said. The former “kind of saved me … If I didn’t have that at that point, I don’t know what I would have done. … If you can only just go through that time period and live through it and then get help.”
Allman revealed that when it came to overdosing, he “did have some close calls and some moments of really feeling at the edge of mortality.”
“I always kind of kept it a little bit safe, but you never can do that. Even though you think that in your mind, of course, the wrong things can happen,” Allman said. “The wrong combination of things can happen, and you can just slip into the abyss. I knew it was wrong, and I knew that I was very unsatisfied with life at that point.”
If you or someone you know needs help battling a substance abuse addiction, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
Contributing: Taijuan Moorman, Asha C. Gilbert and Gabriela Miranda, USA TODAY