Cher released the first installment of a planned two-part memoir Tuesday, “Cher: The Memoir, Part One,” spanning roughly the first half of the 78-year-old entertainer’s life, with anecdotes about a marriage to Sonny Bono she called “ loveless ” that led her to consider suicide at the height of their television fame in the 1970s.

In her newly released book, Cher: The Memoir — Part One, the 78-year-old singer compared meeting Bono in November 1962 to “Maria and Tony in West Side Story ,” writing that “everyone else in the room faded” after they crossed paths.