Parents Alessandro Lunghi & Gypsy Lee
She was raised in London by her mother, aunt and grandmother. Her Italian-born father was not married to her mother and they separated when she was two. Her father then married someone else. Cherie adored her mother, but desperately missed her dad.
She is quoted as saying 'I'd see my daddy about once a month and I missed him. I would have loved to have had more of him. He was tall, attractive and very quiet, very gentle. He had a wife who I don't think ever really liked me much.'
When only 4 years old she took dance lessons at Rambert Dance Company.
At 11 she passed her 11+ to the Arts Educational Trust School in Hyde Park.
Cherie was 13 when she was told that her parents had never married. 'It was a dreadful shock.' She says 'My mother might as well have told me I was adopted. She was protecting me.' In those days it was a lot easier to say you were divorced. There were far fewer repercussions for your child. 'I grew up in the Fifties and the majority of people in my class had fathers living at home. I was very aware that I was in the minority. I had a foreign name and my daddy didn't come and pick me up from school. I felt like an outsider, which probably helped me as an actress. Now I feel very comfortable in my skin, but as a child I was very aware that I was different.'
At school her great passion was art, she would do anything to avoid school trips so she could do extra art.
Cherie's mother worked as a secretary in the City to provide for her child, scraping the spare cash together for the ballet lessons that were her passion, until she discovered acting. 'My mother worked damn hard,' says Cherie. 'She had to go to the office every day. There was a lot of laughter at home, but there was a lot of juggling, a lot of hard work, a lot of going without, too.'
A Student of the Conference of Drama Schools (The Central School of Speech & Drama)
Alumni of Homerton College, Cambridge University
Studied art & drawing at The Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea
After University Cherie spent her 20s learning her craft and, at 24, she was working with the RSC. 'There were romances but they were not my priority,' she says. 'I didn't want to get slowed down or held back in any way by romantic liaisons. I was far more interested in gaining as much acting experience as I could - being free.'
She has acted with the Royal National Theatre and with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Married Ralph T Lawson a South African in 1975 a marriage of convenience to stop deporation
Obtained a divorce in 1982
Had a daughter Nathalie Lunghi in 1986 whose father is Roland Joffe. Cherie was 28 when she met Nathalie's father. She was working on a TV version of the Jacobean tragedy 'Tis Pity She's A Whore' in 1980, which Joffe directed. She says 'A romance blossomed and for about five years it was damn good. Then his career took off and he was away a lot. His life started to happen in Los Angeles. I didn't have a career there, but I was in love and kept hanging in there, thinking, "We can make this work". But our paths started to divide. It was very painful.'
At 34, Cherie was single with a little baby. 'It was difficult,' she says. 'I had to accept life wasn't ideal and that things don't go as you plan. Life has its own path and the more you resist, the unhappier you are. It took me a while to face up to this fact. I had to adapt to a life that had fallen short of my ideal because I'd wanted the family. But I had my mother and aunt, who were a terrific support.'
She says 'by my 40s, I was enjoying the advantages of being a single mother - the freedom.' Her career was also in full swing and when Nathalie was nine, Cherie decided to give LA a shot. 'It meant Nathalie would be able to see more of her dad, which was important to me because I'd missed my own father so much.' she says.
It was whilst filming a TV series in LA when her beloved mother, Gypsy, became ill. 'I was with her when she died - and I'm so grateful. I held her and told her I loved her. We washed her and Nathalie put flowers around her head and in her hands. A couple of close relatives joined me. We raised a glass of scotch - her favourite drink - had a good old chinwag and a cry. I grieved for about 18 months. I cried a lot. I missed her terribly. I was living in Los Angeles, 6,000 miles away. I was homesick. At times like that you think, "Where are the people who really understand me and with whom I have a shared history?" It was a really tough year and that's when I decided to go back home.
Presenter of Green Apple Environment Awards at the Cafe Royal, London 1 August 2000
Appeared at the King Arthur Exhibition Edinburgh 3 November 2001
She says I've been in love truly, madly twice. The first time was an early boyfriend,' whom she refuses to name, and British film director Roland Joffe, who is best known for The Killing Fields and The Mission. They lived together for seven years, separating when she was 34. She is quoted as saying 'During the time I was with Nathalie's father, he was a soulmate,' she says also. 'And after Joffe? 'In the 21 years between the end of our relationship and my daughter leaving home, I cohabited briefly with just two men.'
Long term relationship with Simon Woodroffe founder of the Yo! Sushi food chain broke up 2008
Her daughter Nathalie, who is also an actress, moved out of the family home, in Chelsea, in 2008 and lives nearby.
Cherie continues throwing herself into work. She has, in truth, worked her socks off from the age of 13, when she played Alice in Alice In Wonderland for BBC Radio.
There have been roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, movies such as Excalibur and The Mission, and a list of TV credits as long as your arm, most notably, perhaps, The Manageress and the Kenco coffee commercials. Kenco2000
She supports the concept of Fair Trade and is working with 'Divine Chocolate' which is owned by the cocoa farmers themselves, she says "We all love a piece of chocolate, it's the ultimate feelgood treat." Cherie also supports 'Gesar Foundation', 'Save the Children', 'Action for Children', 'NSPCC', 'Richmond Theatre Trust', 'Rambert Supporters Circle' and 'Fusion Academy of Performing Arts'.
Cherie says she's 'stopped looking back at the past and trying to anticipating the future. It takes decades to begin to master the art of living and understanding that every moment matters.'