Sherri Shepherd's Second Divorce Led To A Wild Custody Dispute

Sherri Shepherd became a television mainstay in 2007 when she joined "The View", before landing her own talk show, "Sherri", which was canceled in 2026. As a celebrity, her personal life is lived in the public eye, both for the good and bad, which includes marriages, divorces, and children. In 2015, one of the ugliest chapters of Shepherd's life hit the headlines due a messy and quite unusual custody battle.

Shepherd married Lamar Sally, a TV writer, in 2011, after two years together, before divorcing in 2014. It was reported that the exes had no children together. However, that wasn't technically true. As it turns out, when the couple was still married, they entered an agreement to have a child with a surrogate named Jessica Bartholomew, only for Shepherd to back out several months in. According to Bartholomew's attorney, Jeremy Ross (via People), "This is the first time in the history of the United States that an intended mother has walked out on a carrier six months into the pregnancy."

Sally ended up raising the child, Lamar Sally Jr., on his own, while taking Shepherd to court over child support payments. In 2015, a judge in Pennsylvania ordered Shepherd to be officially listed as Lamar Jr.'s mother. Shepherd fought the ruling, only to settle in July of the same year. According to a TMZ exclusive, the former co-host for "The View" agreed to pay $4,100 a month in child support to Sally, which will increase to $4,600 monthly when Lamar Jr. turns 13.

Lamar Sally was crushed by the falling out with Sherri Shepherd, telling People, "At some point she is going to have to look into his face and say, 'I'm sorry. You were conceived out of love.' Whether she admits to it or not, she owes me and Jessica an apology." Sally has 100% full custody of Lamar Sally Jr. His lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, told People, "Ms. Shepherd doesn't want to spend any time with the child." 

However, Shepherd has a much better relationship with her first son, Jeff Tarpley Jr., who she had in 2005 when married to her then husband, Jeff Tarpley Sr. Jeff Jr. has been seen with his mother in several public moments, including when he attended her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2025. 

In a 2023 Instagram post, Shepherd raved about her then 18-year-old son over his high school prom. Accompanying several photos of Jeff Jr. in a tuxedo was a caption: "'Mom, why are you crying? It's just my prom!' Watching my son put a corsage on his date's wrist and helping her into the car... whew, I think I did alright!"