Sherri Shepherd’s Surrogate, Jessica Bartholomew, Speaks Out After Lamar Sally Divorce

Jessica Bartholomew, the woman who served as a surrogate for “The View” contributor Sherri Shepherd and her then-husband, Lamar Sally, is speaking out a year after their son, Lamar Jr., was born. Bartholomew gave an exclusive interview with the U.K.’s Daily Mail after Shepherd tried to back out of their agreement.

“Sherri put me and my family through so much emotionally and almost ruined me financially so I will never trust anyone to go through that again,” Bartholomew, 33, told the Daily Mail. “I wanted to help her because she couldn't have a child of her own and it was supposed to be a beautiful thing. But it turned out to be a nightmare.”

While Bartholomew was pregnant with LJ, Sally filed for divorce from the television personality in March 2014. He wanted custody of their unborn child, and Shepherd wanted nothing to do with the baby.

Shepherd later revealed she lied about the true reason she wanted to have a baby. She just wanted to save her marriage, not start a family, she told People magazine last month.

“If I had known this was Sherri's attempt to save her marriage ... there is no way I would have agreed to this surrogacy,” Bartholomew said. “Since when has a baby saved a marriage? Never.”

LJ was born Aug. 5, 2014, but Shepherd, 48, had left Sally, 44, to be a single parent. Without Shepherd in the picture, Bartholomew claimed Sally went after her for child support since her name was on the birth certificate. Eventually, things were straightened out with Bartholomew and Sally took the "View” host to court. She was ordered to pay $4,100 a month in child support, the Daily Mail wrote.

Shepherd has publicly remained silent about her personal turmoil. She didn’t respond to Bartholomew and instead tweeted about her new Cooking Channel show, “Holy & Hungry,” and tweeted support for singer Tamar Braxton, who will make her debut on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” Monday night.

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