Sherri Shepherd wanted another child when she married Lamar Sally, but her eggs were not viable. The couple chose to use a surrogate and the baby arrived on Aug. 5.
Shepherd has refused to take responsibility for the child, Lamar Sally Jr. or LJ, and asked for a divorce after the surrogate got pregnant, Sally told the Daily Mail. She won't claim the baby as hers because they used Sally's sperm and donor eggs.
"Sherri told me, 'It's your sperm, not my egg so it's YOUR baby,'" Sally said. "It was like she had ripped my heart out of my chest, this was not the Sherri I knew and not the woman I fell in love with and married."
The former "The View" co-host also wouldn't put the child on her Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) insurance. Sally had to put his son on Medi-cal, California's welfare program for health insurance.
His attorney assured Shepherd that if she put the child on her SAG insurance it would be "without prejudice" until after their court case was resolved, according to the Daily Mail.
"My attorney tried to convince Sherri that it would not reflect on the case at all and that it would not imply that she was taking responsibility as a parent to have the child on her insurance but she still refused and told me to get on Medicaid," Sally said.
The government has now gone after the surrogate mother for child support, because her name is on the birth certificate. The surrogate is a single, 23-year-old waitress who gave birth to her own twins a couple years ago.
"We paid her $30,000 to be our surrogate and it helped out her family a lot but now it's becoming an awful burden and I feel horrible about it and Sherri doesn't care one bit," Sally said.
Sally claims Shepherd made $3 million work for "The View" and offered him $150,000 to "make [him] go away." The screenwriter would not accept her offer, but fears his ex will keep him wrapped up in court until he backs down.
"Sherri is the one who initiated the surrogacy and we agreed to do this together, she wanted this child more than anything," Sally said. "She calls me up and start to demanding to know why I would not accept the pay-off and I told her it's not about the money but both of them being parents to this little baby."
Sally left New Jersey to move back into his Los Angeles apartment and his cousin has moved in to help him raise LJ. He also plans to return to teaching soon.
Shepherd refused to talk about her divorce proceedings and the baby when she appeared on "The Wendy Williams Show" on Sept. 17.
"We can't say anything about that. I have a lot of lawyers and I'm in court right now and it's very public and it's very painful," Shepherd told Williams.
The estranged couple's next court appointment is Oct. 2 for a pretrial hearing in Pennsylvania.
