Georgia Holt was married and divorced six times. That included twice to her first husband — and Cher's father — John Paul Sarkisian. Each time they were married (in 1946 and in 1965), they were divorced the next year. After their first marriage ended, Holt struggled financially and emotionally, eventually placing Cher in a Catholic orphanage so she could earn enough money to become financially sound enough to take care of her. Later, as a child and early teen, Holt would tell Cher, "'Honey, I want you to be somebody.' I didn't necessarily mean show business particularly," Holt told HuffPost. "I said 'I want you to be somebody' because if you come from the life that I had come from, the goal is to be somebody."
Holt later married actor John Southall, with whom she had her second child, actress Georganne. Cher said that growing up her mother was strict but mostly kept from giving any life guidance. "She never gave me and my sister advice because, truthfully, she knew we'd never take it," Cher told People in 2013. "Instead, we learned about life by listening to her talk about the things she did wrong and the things she did right."
In 1961, Holt married bank manager Gilbert Hartmann LaPiere, who legally adopted her daughters, changing their last names to LaPiere. Per the The Guardian, Holt remained in a relationship with her last husband, Craig Spencer, until her death.
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