Cher brushes off 40-year age gap ahead of Saturday Night Live

Cher returned to Saturday Night Live with renewed public attention focused less on her performance history and more on her private life.

Ahead of her appearance on Saturday Night Live, the 79-year-old singer and actress addressed the ongoing conversation surrounding her relationship with music executive Alexander Edwards, a romance defined publicly by its 40-year age difference and privately by its consistency.

Cher has been dating Edwards since late 2022, after the pair met during Paris Fashion Week in September of that year.

They went public two months after that, caught on camera walking side by side - sparking rumors swirling right through 2025. Even with all the spotlight, Cher keeps things low-key when talking about the romance - short answers, a joke here and there instead of deep dives.

“Love doesn't know math,” she wrote on Instagram in response to followers questioning the age gap, a comment that quickly became the defining quote attached to her relationship narrative.

The comments have floated back up just as Cher geared up for a Saturday Night Live performance - her first complete musical stint on the program in over 30 years.

While Saturday Night Live remains the immediate professional focus, the broader public conversation has expanded to include how Cher navigates visibility, privacy, and scrutiny at this stage of her career.

Saturday Night Live and Cher’s public moment

Cher’s appearance on Saturday Night Live arrived during a period when the show has leaned heavily into legacy moments, pairing established cultural figures with contemporary hosts and performers.

Her return placed her among a select group of artists whose careers span the entire lifespan of Saturday Night Live itself.

As she stepped back onto the Saturday Night Live stage, Cher did so without reframing her personal life for public approval.

The relationship with Edwards has not been positioned as a reinvention or a headline strategy, but as a steady part of her life that happens to intersect with renewed public visibility.

Edwards, who is in his 30s, was largely unknown to the broader public before being linked to Cher.

Paparazzi photos from November 2022 first drew attention to their relationship, after which Cher confirmed the romance on Instagram by sharing a photo captioned simply “Alexander.” When fans asked if he was her “new man,” she responded with a heart emoji, declining further clarification.

That approach has remained consistent. Cher has not offered detailed timelines or defensive statements, instead returning repeatedly to the same point: the age difference does not factor into how the relationship functions.

In a 2023 interview with OK! magazine, Cher spoke candidly but briefly about Edwards’ presence in her life. She said, 

 “He's a dear, but I haven't hardly been able to see him. It's like the in and out, kiss, 'hi baby', and we get to have a dinner or something like that.”

She added that Edwards accompanied her to fashion shows in Paris despite limited personal interest:

“But he's going to some fashion shows with me here [Paris], which is admirable because he isn't that interested, even though he loves fashion. He just went to hold my hand.”

Those remarks underscored a recurring theme in Cher’s public comments: the relationship is described in practical, unembellished terms rather than spectacle. The simplicity stands in contrast to the scale of reaction it has generated.

Cher has historically separated her personal relationships from her professional milestones.

Her Saturday Night Live appearance follows years of selective media engagement, with interviews often centering on music, performance, and longevity rather than romantic details.

The renewed interest surrounding her relationship coincides with her return to one of television’s most visible platforms, but the two have not been publicly linked by Cher herself.

Throughout her career, Cher has addressed public judgment directly but sparingly. In past interviews unrelated to Edwards, she has spoken about autonomy, aging, and refusing to perform life choices for external validation. Those themes continue to frame how she responds to commentary now.

The discussion around her relationship has also unfolded against the backdrop of her broader media presence in recent years, including fashion appearances, interviews, and continued music releases.

While Cher’s cultural relevance has never been dependent on romantic narratives, the visibility of her partnership with Edwards has prompted renewed examination of how age, gender, and power are discussed in celebrity relationships.

Cher’s approach ahead of Saturday Night Live reflects a pattern established across decades: she acknowledges attention without being governed by it.

The relationship with Edwards has not been framed as an explanation, a controversy, or a statement. It has been presented simply as part of her life, existing independently of public approval.

Stay tuned for more updates.