Cher has explained why she once turned down a date with Elvis Presley.

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The pop icon, 77, spoke about why she prefers younger men during a recent appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show.

“I’m really shy when I’m not working, and kind of shy around men,” she explained. “And the reason I go out with young men is because men my age or older – well, now they’re all dead – but before they just never… they were always terrified to approach me.”

Cher went on to agree that younger men are “bolder”, adding: “[They’re] raised by women like me.”

The conversation about the singer’s love life arose after she revealed that she once turned down a date with Elvis.

“It was because I was nervous and I knew of the people around him,” Cher told Hudson. “And it wasn’t that they were bad people, it’s just that I was kind of nervous of his reputation.”

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Cher is currently in a relationship with artist and producer Alexander “A.E.” Edwards, who is 38 years old. Elsewhere in her interview with Hudson, she revealed that her partner had introduced her to 2Pac‘s music: “I was so taken aback by the depth of the words.”

In 2022, Cher spoke about Presley during an interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

“When I was 10 years old, my mom took me to the Pan Pacific to see Elvis. I really loved him,” she said at the time (via USA Today). “And then when I got older – not this old – but older, he invited me to Las Vegas.”

She added: “One of his people called and said, ‘Would you like to come up for the weekend?’ And I was so terrified that I couldn’t do it.

“He was on the downside of himself. And I don’t mean like handsome, [or] whatever. He was on the downside of the drugs and stuff like that.”

Cher dressed as Presley for her 2002 VH1 Divas performance in Las Vegas, Nevada where she covered ‘Heartbreak Hotel’.