Sherri Shepherd to Remain Legal Mother of Child Born via Surrogacy After Court Denies Her Request for Appeal

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania denies former The View co-host's request to review 2015 ruling binding her to ex Lamar Sally's child

By Rebecca Macatee Mar 01, 2016 7:56 PMTags
Lamar Sally, Sherri ShepherdGetty Images

Sherri Shepherd will remain the legal mother of the child born to her and Lamar Sally via surrogate.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania denied Shepherd's request to review the April 2015 ruling which mandated her name be on the child's birth certificate and she would still be under contract to pay expenses incurred by the "embryo carrier."

E! News reached out to the former View co-host for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Her ex-husband Sally released a statement via his attorney, saying, "After numerous court battles over the past two years, I am glad this case is finally over and that the ruling that Sherri is the legal mother to our son will stand. Now I can fully focus on raising my son."

Shepherd and Sally were married in 2011, and they began to pursue surrogacy using Sally's sperm and an egg donor. In April 2014, the former couple filed for separation. At that point, the surrogate hired was pregnant, and even then Shepherd and Sally were embroiled in a legal battle over who would be financially responsible for the future of the child. "Baby S.," as the child is now referred to in court documents, was born July 28, 2014.

Shepherd, who has an 11-year-old son named Jeffrey with her ex-husband Jeffrey Tarpley, told People in August 2015 that her "nasty divorce [and] nasty custody battle" with Sally had been difficult. But, as she told the magazine, "I'm the type of person I feel like as long as you can get up, you have another chance."

"I am appealing the ruling that happened [in April 2015 declaring her the child's legal mother] and he gets his settlement every month," she said then of Sally. "He's happy. There nothing I can do. It's out of my hands. You move on and I have a son. I have to take care of him so everything is good."

—Additional reporting by Lindsay Good

On another note, watch the video below to hear why Raven-Symoné originally wanted to join The View.

Watch: Raven-Symone Talks Joining "The View" Full Time