Sherri Shepherd's Surrogate Speaks Out For First Time About Abandoned Baby

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Sherri Shepherd's Surrogate Speaks Out For First Time About Abandoned Baby

Sherri Shepherd had her son via IVF at 38 and when at 45 she couldn't get pregnant same way, she and former husband Lamar Sally turned to surrogacy to build their family using egg donor. However, their marriage broke down while the surrogate was still pregnant, read here. Sherri later alleged that Lamar had defrauded her into signing the papers so that he would get custody after their divorce and milk her for child support payments since she was the bigger earner.

Based on this, the former co-host of The View decided to hands-off the new baby especially since her genetic material was not used. Unfortunately, this meant the surrogate mother got left in the lurch as the only mother of the child.

Jessica Bartholomew, the baby surrogate to has now spoken out for the first time about Sherri’s decision not to be a part of Lamar Jr.’s life. The 23-year-old waitress was contracted via a surrogacy agency to carry the baby - who was born August 5 and was created using Sherri's then husband's sperm and another woman's egg.

The surrogate sat down with Inside Edition to tell of how her life has been since she claims Sherri walked out of the baby's life after splitting with her then-husband Lamar Sally. Jessica told the program, in an episode which airs Thursday night:

'I am angry with Sherri because she never once contacted me to tell me what was happening. It was kind of like I was left out in the cold.'

The gestational carried claims that while pregnant she was told the couple were getting divorced, but she was not informed that The View co-shot had decided to back out of the surrogacy agreement and never contacted personally.

If she had a chance to talk to the 47-year-old TV personality, Jess said there would be many questions.

'I would ask Sherri why she did what she did – if she thought it was okay to do something like that…I just don’t understand how she can act like this baby is nonexistent. It just blows my mind.

'She would call up and check on me during the pregnancy in the beginning. At the 20 week appointment, she seemed very excited. She was going to see the baby for the first time…I didn’t see any warning signs right away.'

Sherri and her husband of three years both filed for divorce in May last year, and the case is yet to be finalised as both bring contentious issues to the table.

However, as their battle rages, Jessica claims that she is the one now facing paying child support - despite an agreement and not being the child's biological mother.

She told Inside Edition as there was no mother at the birth, she was written down on the birth certificate.

'I am now listed as a noncustodial parent in California. I have a child support case coming against me now.'

The child support case was triggered she said as Lamar applied for Medi-Cal, a California state program that provides free or low-cost health coverage for families with limited income and resources, as little Lamar Jr. has health problems.