Cher IS LIVING IN THE MOMENT

THE ICON LOOKS BACK ON HER LEGACY OF RESILIENCE AND REVEALS WHAT SHE'S LEARNED ABOUT DATING AND MOTHERHOOD

- JEFF NELSON

After several days spent gallivanting around the City of Light-hitting up Fashion Week shows and promoting her new album Christmas-Cher is back in her Paris hotel suite. The entertainment legend has been gushing about her music-producer boyfriend, Alexander "A.E." Edwards, when he enters the room. "Baby, I'm saying really nice things about you to People magazine!" Cher, 77, tells Edwards, 37, before handing him the phone to say hello to this reporter.

The pair have made headlines since they began dating a year ago. But Cher just tunes out the noise. "If you have happiness, you can't think about how long it's going to last," she says of their relationship and the Internet's fascination with their age difference. "You have to think about 'How does it feel?' and live in the moment."

That mindset has carried Cher through 60 years in showbiz, from the peaks and valleys of her iconic careershe's the only artist to notch a No. 1 hit in each of the past six decades, plus an Oscar, Grammy and Emmy winner-to personal tragedies and family drama. She's weathered difficult times recently, including the death of her beloved mother and a newly surfaced claim that she allegedly hired men to forcibly remove her younger son, Elijah Blue Allman, 47, from a hotel room. Now, as she prepares to release her first holiday record (out Oct. 20), Cher holds strong to her spirit of perseverance. "You either keep going or you stop," she says, "and I never give up."