Who are Sid and Ethel? Music legend Cher pays tribute to ‘pain in the a**" ex-lover and Hollywood star Val Kilmer as he dies aged 65

Cher will "miss" her "pain in the a**" ex-boyfriend Val Kilmer.

The Believer hitmaker dated the Top Gun star - who died from pneumonia on 1 April aged 65 after previously battling throat cancer - for a few years in the early 1980s and they remained friends afterwards

Following his death she has paid a touching tribute to the actor. Cher wrote on X: "VALUS. Will miss u, U Were Funny, crazy, pain in the a**,GREAT FRIEND, kids[purple heart emoji]U, BRILLIANT as Mark Twain, BRAVE here during ur sickness (sic)"

The 78-year-old star previously explained she and Val had developed nicknames for one another so they wouldn't have to "yell" out each other's real names.

She told People magazine in 2020: "He never calls me Cher. He always calls me Ethel. Val didn't want to yell Cher, I didn't want to yell Val, so we just called ourselves Sid and Ethel. And we also called ourselves one other thing, Vallus Maximus and Cherus Reprimandus. It means what it says. It was just kind of who I was in the household."

Cher and Val used to stay in touch through "email" or "text". She said: "We don't see each other all that often. He always wants me to come down to his studio, but there are a lot of people and I get embarrassed.

"He always wants me to come and do something, and then I just go, 'I can't, Vallus, I just can't.' Or he'll just say, 'Cher, come on.'"

Cher later reflected on the evolving relationship she'd enjoyed with Val, explaining how they were friends before embarking on a relationship, and their romance ultimately soured because they were both "alpha males".

She said: “We became friends because we laughed at the same things constantly. He would sleep over and it was just a friendship [at first]. It went from madly in love and laughing hysterically to respecting each other's ability.

"We had unbelievable times and then put up with some times when they weren't [that way] because we were both alpha males. We were both individuals and neither of us was going to give up on that."

During his battle with throat cancer, the Doors actor stayed in Cher's guest home and she "stepped up" to support him. He wrote in his 2020 memoir: “One night I suddenly awoke vomiting blood that covered the bed like a scene out of The Godfather. I prayed immediately, then called 911. Then alerted my hostess. Cher stepped in and stepped up."