Cher Exits Lifetime's Flint Water Crisis Movie Due to 'Serious Family Issue'

Cher, who in January was announced as both the star and co-executive producer of Flint, a Lifetime movie based on the ongoing Flint, Mich. water crisis, is no longer affiliated with the project.

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In a statement released exclusively to Deadline, the Oscar-winning actress says that a “serious family issue” has forced her to pull out of the Toronto-based production, which is still on track to begin filming in April.

“This has been a project so near and dear to my heart and I was truly looking forward to helping tell this story,” Cher said. “Unfortunately, I will be unable to leave Los Angeles during the scheduled filming as I am dealing with a serious family issue that prevents me from going on location for the April filming. I’m so glad that [executive producers] Craig [Zadan] and Neil [Meron] plan to move ahead and I know that this Lifetime movie will be done beautifully.”

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Flint would have marked Cher’s first major dramatic TV role since appearing in HBO’s 1996 abortion-rights movie If These Walls Could Talk, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination. Her role has not yet been recast.

Are you disappointed by Cher’s Flint exit? And will you still tune in for the film’s eventual premiere?

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