Cher thought she would "get killed" when she and Meryl Streep "saved" a woman from being mugged.

Cher

Cher

The 72-year-old singer and her friend and 'Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again' co-star have previously briefly mentioned coming to the aid of a mystery woman in the 1980s, but now the 'If I Could Turn Back Time' hitmaker has recalled how she and the Oscar-winning actress split up and chased a "huge man" while out for ice cream, even though it left her in fear of her own life.

She recalled in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres: "We get around the corner and there's this huge man... and he's pulling at this girl,.

"He's like shaking this girl. Meryl just starts screaming and takes off and I start screaming and take off and think, 'I'm going to get killed; my friend is going to kill me.'

"So we're running and running and the guy turns around and he sees us and he starts running towards us. And then I thought, 'we're really gonna get killed.' But we both split off in the opposite directions and we got to the girl. He had kind of like ripped her clothes, but she kept her purse, and that's what he wanted."

And Cher admitted the would-be victim was stunned when she realised who had come to her rescue.

She added: "And then, we're like trying to fix her all up... then she looks at us and she screams and she said, 'Oh my god I'm a singing waitress and no one's going to believe I got mugged and saved by Meryl Streep and Cher.' "

Meryl, 69, spoke about the mugging last November when speaking in front of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

She said: "Someone else was being abused and I just went completely nuts and went after this man. Ask Cher - she was there. And the thug ran away, it was a miracle."

And Cher briefly referenced the incident in a previous interview.

She said: "Meryl Streep and I saved a girl from a large mugger in New York City."

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