Sherri Shepherd's surrogate speaks: 'I'm being forced to pay child support'

VIDEO - Sherri Shepherd and Lamar Sally's surrogate breaks her silence for the first time...

Jan 30, 2015

Jessica Bartholomew, the surrogate for Sherri Shepherd and her ex-husband Lamar Sally, has spoken out for the first time about how the comedian has been completely absent from Lamar Jr.’s life.

“I just don’t understand how she can act like this baby is nonexistent. It just blows my mind,” Bartholomew said on Inside Edition Thursday.

Lamar Jr. was born August 5 and was conceived using Sally’s sperm and another woman’s egg.

The 23-year-old waitress says that everything seemed normal until Shepherd and Sally split in May.

“She would call up and check on me during the pregnancy in the beginning. At the 20-week appointment, she seemed very excited. She was going to see the baby for the first time… I didn’t see any warning signs right away.”

Bartholomew says she was told about the Shepherd and Sally’s divorce while she was pregnant, but she was never contacted personally and wasn’t told that they had decided to back out of the surrogacy agreement.

Shepherd says Sally defrauded her by getting her to sign surrogacy papers although they were getting a divorce in order to ensure she had to pay child support.

Bartholomew, whose name is on the birth certificate as the mother, says she is the one who now has to foot the bill.

“I am now listed as a noncustodial parent in California. I have a child support case coming against me now.”

Sally currently has full custody of Lamar Jr., and lives in California.

The child support case began when Sally applied for Medi-Cal, a California program that gives low-cost health coverage for families with limited incomes.

Bartholomew says she is angry and hurt by the woman she carried a baby full-term for.

“I am angry with Sherri because she never once contacted me to tell me what was happening. It was kind of like I was left out in the cold,” she told the television program.

Follow theGrio.com’s Entertainment Editor Chris Witherspoon on Twitter @WitherspoonC