In July 2014, Sherri Shepherd’s messy divorce drama was splashed all over the gossip sites. Sherri had been married to a man named Lamar Sally, and Sally was a shady golddigger (according to Sherri). Lamar had convinced Sherri to have a baby through surrogacy, although the child would not end up having any biological connection to Sherri (as in, they didn’t use Sherri’s eggs). When Sherri filed the divorce papers, she told the court that she had no interest in paying child support to Lamar to raise a child who wasn’t “hers” biologically, even though at one point she did sign on to the surrogacy.
Move ahead to one year later. Over the summer, Sherri was ordered to pay child support for the child she never wanted (and has no interest in raising), but the court left open the possibility that if Sherri could prove that Lamar defrauded her, she wouldn’t have to pay the $4100 a month in child support. Well, guess what? She couldn’t prove fraud.
Time for Sherri Shepherd to crack open that checkbook — her last ditch effort to avoid paying child support to her ex was shot down in court. Sherri had claimed her estranged husband Lamar Sally defrauded her by getting a surrogate to carry a baby for them. She thinks he did it only for the purpose of securing a fat child support check, once he knew they were divorcing.
Well, Lamar is going to get that check after all — because an appeals court agreed with the lower court’s decision that Sherri was fully on board with the surrogate plan and in fact, paid for most of the process. Bottom line for Sherri, she’ll continue with the terms of their settlement … paying $4,100 per month until the infant hits 13 — then it’s $4,600. We suggest auto-pay. Less fuss.
As I said in the previous stories, while this is an extremely tricky legal and ethical set of problems, I do think the court came down with the right decision. Do I think Lamar Sally is as pure as snow? Of course not. He’s shady as hell and getting financial support from Sherri probably was his endgame. But! Sherri didn’t have to agree to the surrogacy. She didn’t have to sign the paperwork. She didn’t have to pay for most of it. She really did “want” this child in the eyes of the law, and once the child was gestating in the surrogate’s womb, there were no take-backs.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
The one who loses the most is that poor child. Can you imagine him reading about this mess when he is older?
^THIS. The child will need therapy to walk him/her through this mess. Poor thing.
I was just coming over to write this very thing, Jane, Lindy & NewWester.
Yup. Poor kid.
And in the midst of this all is a poor child who didn’t ask to be brought into this fuckwittery.
Exactly.
Completely agree.
Yes. That’s so sad.
Yes, that’s the sad part. Poor kid.
My thoughts exactly. Best interests of the child. Always. So Ms. Shepherd lost the battle. Maybe she should accept that she picked her husband, signed papers agreeing to surrogacy, the whole nine. Now open your heart, woman, and perhaps see about having a relationship with an innocent child that deserves all the love the adults around can give.
Exactly. No matter how they spin it, I’ll never understand how so-called adults can be so dismissive of a child (and everything rearing that child entails) they bring into the world. What a pair of selfish twats they are.
10000000%
She tried to back out of an agreement she willingly got into. The whole business makes her look bad, on top of her parenting of “Jeffrey.” A quiet settlement would have been better, but maybe he wanted a trial. Poor kid. Is he back with his ex?
She offered him a settlement of $3,000 a month and he declined. To be honest, if I were her, I’d see this as a victory and move on. $4,000 is not all that much and seems to be a concession by the court that Lamar needs to get off his butt and work. I don’t know about where he lives, but in NY, $4,000 a month barely pays for rent in a small apartment.
That’s the point. He doesn’t live in NYC. He’s on a different coast. He up and moved while the surrogate was still pregnant and filed for divorce in California. He is the biological parent. She lives in New Jersey and works in New York usually a couple of jobs as a single mother. She has her special needs son here to take care of financially.
He set Sherri up big time.. He’s back in California where he wants to be and he wanted to be supported, and his meal ticket was the baby. The baby was born, and he has the baby in California and child support. So where was the bonding ever going to be with this baby?
She was absolutely used. I think Sally is evil. I am glad he didn’t get the huge amount he initially wanted.
Huh weird. I know ppl that live in upper east side for less than $2k
And she didn’t do due diligence when she hooked up with Lamar. Seems like she just wanted to be married, and this is what she got.
LMAO!!!!!!! Love celeb drama. Sherri looks like she has taken #FatAcceptance to heart. Get crackin’ gal.
Lol and to be fair by Hollywood standards that is chump change, she should be happy she didn’t take a bigger hit.
Good. She could have easily said no to the surrogacy. She could have not signed the papers. Could have not done so many things. At the end of the day, she’s just as responsible, if not more so, for bringing this kid into the world.
Funny how she had no problem signing everything, and making it legally clear she wanted this child until she realized she’d need to pay support post divorce.
I totally agree. When you bring a child into the world, however it is done, accidentally or on purpose, you have a responsibility for that child. I think very little of her for trying to avoid that responsibility. I know she feels tricked – but how many men use that as an excuse not to support their children, and what do we think of them? The child is innocent.
Exactly.
+1
This story gets on my nerves. Horrible people.
Shame of them for treating a child like this.
Does she still believe that earth is flat?
I am sorry now but its not as if she purchased a stack of DVDs from amazon, does she not understand that this is a child with real feelings? This is disgusting, I feel sorry for the baby as she did want it when agreeing to the process and its a mockery to those people who want children and cant have them or cant afford this process.
Shame on you Sherri!
No sympathy for Sherri whatsoever. As I said long ago, a 40+ woman knows her own mind and she knew she couldn’t accept a non-biological child. If she could, she would’ve adopted.
JMO, she is like Kelly Rutherford and Bethany Frankel, in that they get into ‘statement relationships’ (i.e. he’s from another country, so he’s exotic/unique, or I found someone when I’m 40/pushing 40, so I’m still the $h!t!, etc.) After the charge of ‘landing a catch’ and the spotlight for same ends, things deteriorate quickly and magically, the catch becomes a charleton, cheat, etc.
Here’s a concept- marry because there is love and commitment there. And most certainly, conceiving children naturally or via surrogacy should have that in place as well.
I think she is disgusting and has behaved disgracefully. This is a human being they agreed to mutually wanting. He is a terrible person, agreed but she is just as bad- if not worse as at least he is “taking care” of the child. This makes me so incredibly sad for that beautiful baby. There are so mAny good people out there who would give anything to adopt and then you have these terrible good for nothing people with the means but zero compassion. The world works in crazy ways
I wish I could font size this to 50, bold it and repost a hundred times.
He was so great when you wanted the attention for getting married, and so great when you wanted attention for wanting a baby, but now he’s a gold digger who tricked you…nice spin. I am glad she could PR her way out of her responsibility.
My feelings on this: Before you forgo the condom, open your legs, or sign on to the surrogacy contract, make sure you are ready to provide for that child come hell or high water. Life happens and your situation can change in a heartbeat. That child has a right to parental support and the moment Sherri willingly consented to bringing him/her into this world, she agreed to provide that support.
THIS!!!!
DON’T HAVE KIDS THAT YOU AREN’T FINANCIALLY OR EMOTIONALLY PREPARED TO CARE FOR.
at the end of the day it really is that simple people.
Didn’t Sherri dump her first son off on her ex, as soon as Barbra Walters called!! This is a woman, who obviously didn’t care about having another child and was probably going to leave it all up to her husband to raise the child, by himself anyway. I realise she has a career, but having a career does not preclude you from being a good, caring Mom. I don’t think she wanted a child, she just gave in to shut her men up…I’m glad the courts are making her pay. If she were a man, she would have to pay…what’s good for the goose, etc.
Sherri has always had custody of Jeffrey.
Yes, but I believe she left him in New York, to work on the View…
No.
So mixed about this case. I do think she was taken for a smack down ride, but I also think she was and is a complete idiot. However that ex of hers sounds like a real loser.
That’s about it.
Even though I believe she is legally responsible for that child, I agree with all of this and think her ex is shady as hell.
Yeah he sounds freakish but she was head over heels in love at one point. Sometimes I think woman spend more time choosing a new purse than a husband. Lesson learned Sherri?
If Sherri still had her platform on the View, she’d be all over a person who is doing exactly as she wants….not accepting responsibility for her actions. As those who have commented before me, agree, it’s the child that suffers the from the butt of idiots.
I hope there is a therapy fund for the child.
Exactly. Can you imagine reading about this s**t later on when the child is old enough? Mom never wanted me and did not want to pay child support??? Talk about psychologically damaging!! One other thing: child support is FOR the child…to help support him, pay for clothes, school etc. Why can’t she think about it like that??? Poor kid
I loathe this woman. At an unreasonable measure. Her judgmental outlook on others is disgusting but above all her stupidity is unforgivable.
I actually do believe that this man had ulterior motives – the entire story would at the very least suggest it. That being said, she is a grown woman who made a conscious decision to create a life (something she often rants about in her judgmental outbursts) but as soon as she has to foot the bill then she wants to be absolved from financial and legal responsibility.
But what would one expect from a woman who denies evolution?
I cannot stand Shepherd for the simple fact that, not only did she disregard this child even before it was born, but she then tried to stick the surrogate with all of her legal bills including the monthly child support payments. If that does not tell anyone who the real Sherri Shepherd is, I do not know what does. This woman is a straight up nasty mess.
To be fair, she did not try to stick the surrogate with the bill. She only said SHE (Sheri) was not the child’s mother. The effect, though, would have been to make the surrogate the legal parent, which could have seen the surrogate stuck with the bills. Sheri’s legal argument has always been that she is not biologically related to the child and that the sole parent responsible for the baby is Lamar. However, as many have said upthread, since she contracted for the surrogacy, that’s a crappy argument.
True. I hope he gets absolutely no spousal support. The child is definitely short changed here. But this husband was all about a child of his own and 18 years of payments. He didn’t work much during the marriage, wonder if he’s working now.
Not sure what kind of father he will be, but you just have to wish the best for the kid.
He’s a stay-at-home dad, entitled to live in the lifestyle he’s become accustomed to, like millions of women have fought for (and received). $50,000 a month seems equitable…. unless he gets married again.
They weren’t married very long. Sherri lost a lit of income sources, so it seems fair to provide child support based on her current salary. As for him, I’d say the same for a female married for a short time, go back to work.
It is a crappy situation because it is clear that the ex is a gold digger. But the reality is that she entered into the agreement willingly. Now the child is here, and I feel bad for him because it is a really terrible situation to grow up with. If people are going to enter into surrogacy agreements, they should only do so if they want the child themselves, and not do it to appease their spouse.
I just read her ex’s statement, that he is happy to be there emotionally for the child if she won’t. But not financially, right? That will always be on her. Although I believe she is legally obligated, the right thing for him to do would have been to release her from the contract she was likely manipulated into pursuing in the first place. It certainly would have been a healthier situation for the child. Although she clearly didn’t handle this well (and is, I say again, clearly responsible based on the contract), he is a creep using this poor kid as his meal ticket and laughing all the way to the bank.
“the right thing for him to do would have been to release her from the contract “. So if the situation was reversed, and a female got married, pregnant and then divorce, would you say that the right thing to do for her would be to have an abortion ?
If they had just adopted, would returning the child be the right thing to do ?
She did not got accidentally pregnant. Surrogacy is forbidden in my country (and IMO there’s a lot of good reasons for that) but it’s was a legal option for her to become a mother. A choice she made to become a mother, more than once since it’s a long and complicated process. So her ex is a con artist ? a lazy ass creep ? He is still the man she choose to have child with. And the child is a responsibility she choose.
This woman disgusts me. Surrogacy is an extremely complicated process, it’s not like you accidentally sign one form without properly reading it and end up with a kid. It’s something everyone involved has to actively pursue. To turn around say ‘well now I don’t want the kid’, that’s just monstrous.
Who cares if her ex is a gold-digging douche. You don’t get to walk away from a child you brought into the world because you made shitty relationship decisions.
I watch The View everyday, always have hated Sherri. She’s stupid and judgemental yet expects the public to give her a pass on abandoning her child? All she talked about on The View was how much she wanted this child. So, I say, no takebacks. Pay up.
Can someone clarify: wasn’t the surrogate his ex-girlfriend and that came out later on?
THATS WHAT I THOUGHT?!!
I wanna hear the rest of the actual story – cuz as I understood it, it was beyond shady!
The surrogate & the ex-husband were allegedly in cahoots.
If that’s the case, then I would think she could prove fraud though. How would everyone else feel if your spouse pressured you to have a baby by surrogate (emotionally blackmailing you that he would leave if you didn’t) and it becomes clear to you once you had committed that the whole thing was a money scam and he didn’t love you. Would you want that baby and a tie to him for the next 18 years? Believe me, I know she’s far from perfect, but I have compassion for her in this particular scenario.
I would feel awful, but I struggle to see how this is different than a man whose wife pressures him into having a band aid baby as a marriage is falling apart or a woman whose husband leaves her after she’s just given birth. The world is full of people who probably wish they weren’t tied to their child’s other parent (Denise Richards might be at the front of the line), and some of them started to regret the tie before or shortly after the child was born. The child still needs to be financially supported, though, and shouldn’t have to suffer because of the mistakes adults have made in their relationships.
lunchcoma, the difference is that the bandaid baby in the scenario you suggest would at least be the man’s biological child. I know some people don’t care whether a child is biologically theirs, but I think for a lot of people (if not most) in this world, having biological ties matters. I can understand if Sherri’s egg was used to make this baby, but it really does seem like a scam on the part of her ex and his girlfriend to make a baby together while fleecing Sherri for child support. Sherri is an idiot for sure, but I think there was fraud in the sense that she was fooled by a man she thought loved her. However, she signed the papers and was a willing participant, so in the eyes of the law she has to pay up. If I were her I’d probably be furious and crying about this for a very long time.
I thought the surrogate is his ex-girlfriend too! That is the scam…
No, she wasn’t. The surrogate has gone public. She had been a surrogate once before, Sherri and Lamar found her through an agency, and she only met them twice throughout her pregnancy. She has a partner of her own, who she recently married.
She’s been caught up in family court as a result of this, plus it does her harm that everyone thinks this about her.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3230803/Sherri-Shepherd-betrayed-baby-Surrogate-lashes-View-star-turning-one-year-old-Lamar-Jr-growing-without-mom.html
the “ex” girlfriend was the egg donor, not the surrogate. So she and Sally got to have their bio kid and get Sherri to support them. Good plan.
All of the people involved in this event have behaved appallingly. I’ll save my sympathies for the child, who will need a lot of love and a lot of therapy.
The child is probably better off with him because now it will have the opportunity to learn that the earth is round and not flat and only 2,000 years old like Sherry Shepard believes.
Isn’t she the one, that said if her son would be gay, she would kick him out and he would be dead to her forever?
I don’t feel one bit sorry for Sherri. This was not supposed to be an impulsive decision. Too bad if the relationship broke up afterwards, but she should have taken that into consideration before literally signing up to have a baby.
I feel about her the same as I do about men who walk away from a relationship after adoption decisions came into play and then leave both the wife and the child as if the child wasn’t his at all. I may be wrong in my recollections, but isn’t this kind of what Michael Landon and Tori Spelling’s husband did?
It sounds like collusion to me (husband & his former girlfriend havin a baby on Sherri’s dime)
Seriously. Sherri should have put her money where her mouth is, paid the piper, and got a better lawyer.
Now someone needs to get in here and spill it about Michael Landon! Need the intel!
Unless Sherri is really stupid, she could have found a reputable professional surrogate mother as she researched this a bit more, consulted with her lawyer, especially in the case of a break up, etc. I don’t know if this woman was an ex-girlfriend or if that’s what Sherri’s side is putting out to defame the surrogate and the whole situation though.
There’s an article from People online about Landon’s adopted son: December 09, 1991; The Son Michael Landon Loved—and Left By Susan Schindehette
I have very little sympathy for Sherri. She’s basically in the same position as a man who’s left his pregnant wife and decided that he doesn’t want the child anymore, either. Sometimes people end up regretting their reproductive choices. That doesn’t mean they’re not responsible for supporting their children. If she’d been wise, she would have agreed to child support quietly and then had whatever relationship or lack thereof she thought was appropriate with the baby.
She is really an awful woman. That baby is lucky she isn’t the mother. Wow.
I’ve never liked her for personal reasons and now everyone can see how cold and heartless she is.