Sherri Shepherd's ex-husband speaks exclusively to INSIDE EDITION. He says she walked out on their marriage and their baby.
Lamar Sally is a dad doing what fathers do these days by making formula for his son, changing diapers and folding baby clothes.
Lamar Sally used to be married to Sherri Shepherd. Yes, that Sherri Shepherd, co-host of The View for seven years before she left the show last year in a headline-making shakeup.
But Sally says his ex-wife left something else behind when she walked out on their marriage—a little baby.
Sally told INSIDE EDITION, “It's crazy and it's very hurtful. He's going to ask me, ‘Where's my mother? How come I don't have a mom?’”
Sally married Shepherd in a lavish ceremony in 2011 in Chicago. He says immediately after the wedding, Shepherd, who is now 47 and has a son from a previous marriage, told him she wanted another baby. But when she couldn't get pregnant, he says they paid a surrogate $100,000 to carry the baby. A donor egg was used.
INSIDE EDITION’s Victoria Recano asked, “She helped you select the surrogate?”
He replied, “Yes, she met her a couple of times. We even used a facial recognition program so we can pick a person that can sort of look like Sherri.”
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But six months into the pregnancy, Sally says he got the shock of his life, saying, “She says, ‘Sal, I don't think I can be the wife and mother that you need and I think we should divorce.’”
Overnight, he went from the glamor of red carpet premieres on the arm of a red-hot celebrity to living in a modest two bedroom Los Angeles apartment.
The baby, named Lamar Jr., was born in August and according to Lamar, his ex-wife didn't want to have anything to do with the infant.
He said, “She offered me a settlement of $150,000 but it was not to have her name on the birth certificate. I can't do that to my son.”
A letter from Shepherd’s lawyer states: “Lamar Jr. has no legal relationship to Sherri.”
Sadly, Lamar Jr. was born with a rare genetic disorder called G6PD deficiency which affects red blood cells.
Recano asked, “Is it fatal?”
“It can be if it's not monitored. It very well can be fatal,” he replied.
So now, this 44-year-old single dad and TV writer/producer is taking care of his son full time.
Looking back, he says he cannot pinpoint what went wrong with their two year marriage.
Recano asked, “What happened?”
“She has a lot of issues, that's all I can say,” he said.
There was speculation that some ladies on The View didn’t approve. Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg were noticeably absent from the wedding.
On a recent appearance on The Wendy Williams Show, Sherri Shepherd called the baby surrogate drama painful, saying, “I'm in court right now and it's very public and it's painful.”
Just days ago, she appeared on Good Morning America promoting her role as the evil stepmother in Broadway’s Cinderella. She says she's doing fine and acknowledged only one child in her life, saying, “I'm doing so well, I got to be honest. I am smiling. I’m happy, life is good. I am living for my son, Jeffrey.”
Recano asked Sally, “A lot of people say this is all about money. Are you a gold digger?”
“No. There's no amount of money to ease my worry about my son,” he said.
Sherri Shepherd's representative told INSIDE EDITION she won't be commenting on this story.
