‘The View’ Host Sherri Shepherd Abandoned Her Baby?

Sherri Shepherd abandoned her baby, surrogate Jessica Bartholomew says. The baby of the host of The View, Lamar Sally Jr. (LJ), turned 1 last month. Shepherd’s surrogate claims that she only agreed to carry the baby because she thought she helping a loving couple who could not have a child of her own.

Jessica Bartholomew said after finding out about the marital strife the couple was going through, she now feels betrayed, the Daily Mail reports. Sherri Shepherd’s surrogate, 33, said she is now furious with the View host, who has left little Lamar without a mother; the child is being raised solely by his father.

“I will never help another mother have a baby. 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 said during an interview with 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.”

https://youtu.be/AX4VGfbybRs

Shepherd, 48, opened up about the baby she had with the help of a surrogate during an interview with People magazine.

“My situation was a sense of, I didn’t state what I needed and what I wanted and what I didn’t want for being scared of somebody leaving the relationship,” the View host said. “There are consequences to everything, but I was scared to say, ‘That’s not going to work for me. I don’t want that.'”

The surrogate mother to Sherri Shepherd and Lamar Sally, 44, said she would not have agreed to carry the baby if she had known the infant was merely a stop-gap measure to help save a failing marriage.

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

Super sweet @SherriEShepherd nice hanging with you tonight at @RoastBattle pic.twitter.com/mfbu1iWzgJ

— Page Magen (@pagemagen) September 13, 2015

Prior to accepting the request by the television host to carry her baby, Bartholomew had previously been a surrogate to twins for another couple and had enjoyed the experience.

“We talked for quite a while and by the time we finished we had agreed to go into this contract,” the surrogate recalled from her first meeting with the View host and her husband. “Sherri said she really wanted to have a child with Lamar because it would make their family complete. They already had Jeffrey [who is 10] her son from a previous marriage and Lamar loved him unconditionally, but Lamar did not have any children and she wanted him to have that experience. They were hoping for another boy. We used Lamar’s sperm and an anonymous egg donor.”

The surrogate said she received $25,000 for carrying the baby, but she added that due to a “medically induced medical condition,” she could not work for a significant portion of the pregnancy and “went into the hole.” By the time Bartholomew was five months pregnant, she learned that the Sherri Shepherd and Lamar Sally marriage had eroded. Rumors abounded that Sally cheated, claims he emphatically denies.

“I was shocked to hear their marriage was ending but then I was horrified to learn Sherri tried to back out of the surrogate agreement, saying she wanted nothing to do with the baby,” the surrogate said.

The couple had signed a prenuptial agreement, and Sherri allegedly claimed her husband wanted the couple to have a baby in an effort to secure a hefty child support payment.

Bartholomew said the situation went from bad to worse when she was hit with a child support claim. The surrogate is a single mom who works and goes to nursing school.

“Lamar needed to get healthcare for the baby so he went through government assistance and they automatically go after the other parent to collect support and since I was the birth mother and Sherri was denying any responsibility they came after me,” the surrogate said. “I couldn’t believe it. Sherri knew I was a waitress and a single mother but she didn’t care, she just walked away and let them demand support from me when she was the one who wanted this child. I was helping her and this is how she repaid me. I will never, ever go through this again.”

Lamar Sally ultimately took Shepherd to court for child support and won the case. The surrogate’s name was removed from the child support case. The host of The View reportedly pays $4,100 a month in child support and has filed an appeal.

The surrogate is currently pregnant with her third child and got married to a chef she works with in August.

[Image via: S Bukley/Shutterstock.com]