'Getting Older Sucks the Big One, I Hate It!' She's Reigned Pop Land since the 70s, She's the Queen of Camp, She Believes in Life after Love. She's Cher, and She's Still Fantastic

Byline: Words: Rachel Corcoran

We're at a mansion in Malibu to meet uber diva extraordinaire Cher. Sadly, the mansion is not hers (so we can't go snooping through her bathroom cabinet/knicker drawer) but she lives close by, so we're holding out for a dinner invite later (still waiting).

The 67-year-old rocks up without her blonde wig and supping a berry smoothie. She looks amazing on it. That and the surgeon's handiwork, of course, something she admits to ('Who hasn't?' she once said). More importantly, she's flirtatious, funny and doesn't act her 67 years.

Cher is pop's Grand Dame. With a career spanning 50 years, she's sold over 100 million solo albums, 40 million records with first husband Sonny Bono, and won an Oscar for Moonstruck in 1987. Next month, she releases her album Closer To The Truth, 11 years after her 326-date Farewell Tour, and she's just announced another world tour.

This woman has lived. She left home at 16, has been married twice (her first to Sonny was volatile, her second to rock star Gregg Allman lasted nine days), has dated toy boys including Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, and the eldest of her two children, Chaz, had a sex change four years ago. …