Most TV writers spend their careers safely behind the scenes, never once making headlines themselves. Lamar Sally didn’t get that luxury. His marriage, his divorce, and one incredibly painful surrogacy case turned him into the center of a legal story that changed how courts across America think about parenthood.
Quick Bio: Lamar Sally at a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Lamar Sally |
| Born | August 11, 1970 |
| Birthplace | Detroit, Michigan |
| Age (as of 2026) | 55 years old |
| High School Sport | Football |
| College | Central Michigan University (football scholarship) |
| College Degree | Communications |
| Pro Football Attempt | Tried out with the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons |
| Graduate Program | Screenwriting and Directing, Columbia College Chicago |
| Writing Fellowships | ABC/Disney, Nickelodeon, Bill Cosby Writing Program |
| Early TV Work | The Nanny (late 1990s) |
| Writing Credit | Rodney (2004), starring Rodney Carrington |
| Producing Credit | Sherri Shepherd: It’s My Time to Talk (2013) |
| Wife | Sherri Shepherd (married 2011, divorced 2015) |
| How They Met | November 2009, at a mutual friend’s party in Los Angeles |
| Stepson | Jeffrey Tarpley Jr. (born April 22, 2005), from Shepherd’s first marriage |
| Biological Son | Lamar Sally Jr. (“LJ”), born August 5, 2014, via surrogate |
| Legal Case Outcome | Pennsylvania courts ruled Shepherd the legal mother, requiring child support |
| Current Custody | Sally has raised LJ largely as a single father |
| Current Residence | Reportedly relocated to Colorado at one point during custody proceedings |
A Detroit Kid Who Chased Football First
Lamar Sally was born on August 11, 1970, in Detroit, Michigan. Long before anyone knew his name from entertainment headlines, he was known locally for something completely different: football.
He excelled enough as a high school athlete to earn a football scholarship to Central Michigan University. That’s not a small achievement. Scholarship athletes work incredibly hard just to get noticed, let alone recruited, and Sally managed to do exactly that.
Chasing the NFL Dream
At Central Michigan, Sally earned a degree in communications while continuing to play football. After college, he didn’t just walk away from the sport. He actually tried out for two NFL teams: the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons.
Making it to an NFL tryout is a genuinely rare accomplishment, even if it doesn’t lead to a full roster spot. It shows real talent and real dedication, the kind that most casual football fans never fully appreciate.
Turning Toward Writing
Eventually, Sally’s path shifted away from professional football and toward storytelling. He enrolled in the Graduate Screenwriting and Directing Program at Columbia College Chicago, a serious academic commitment for someone who had spent years training as an athlete instead.
That choice proved to be a rewarding one. One of his professors liked a script Sally had written enough to send it directly to a producer in Los Angeles. That single connection led to his script being optioned, giving him his first real foothold in the entertainment industry.
Building Real Industry Credentials
Sally didn’t stop at one lucky break. He went on to secure writing fellowships with some genuinely respected programs: ABC/Disney, Nickelodeon, and the Bill Cosby Writing Program.
These fellowships exist specifically to develop new writing talent within the television industry, and getting accepted into multiple ones shows Sally wasn’t coasting on one opportunity. He was actively building a legitimate career, one credential at a time.
Working Behind the Scenes on Real Shows
Sally’s professional writing and production career included work on “The Nanny” in the late 1990s, a hugely popular sitcom at the time. Later, he served as a staff writer on “Rodney,” a 2004 ABC sitcom starring comedian Rodney Carrington.
In 2013, he executive produced “Sherri Shepherd: It’s My Time to Talk,” a comedy special starring the woman who would soon become his wife. That project sat right at the intersection of his professional life and his personal life, something that would only become more complicated as time went on.
Meeting Sherri Shepherd
Sally met Sherri Shepherd in November 2009, at a mutual friend’s party in Los Angeles. Shepherd was already a recognizable name by then, having spent years as a co-host on “The View.”
Their relationship moved forward steadily. Sally relocated to New York, and the couple got engaged in 2010. They married in the summer of 2011, in a lavish ceremony held in Chicago.
Becoming a Stepfather
Through his marriage to Shepherd, Sally became stepfather to her son, Jeffrey Tarpley Jr., born April 22, 2005, from Shepherd’s earlier marriage to Jeff Tarpley. Jeffrey has developmental disabilities and requires special care, adding real complexity to the family dynamic Sally stepped into.
This detail matters because it shows Sally wasn’t simply marrying into fame. He was marrying into an existing family, with real responsibilities that came along with it.
The Fertility Struggles Behind Closed Doors
After marrying, Sally and Shepherd tried to have a child together naturally. When that didn’t work, they turned to IVF treatments. Those attempts were also unsuccessful.
In 2013, the couple made the decision to pursue surrogacy instead. They found a surrogate living in Pennsylvania and had an embryo implanted using Sally’s sperm and a donor egg, since Shepherd was reportedly not the biological mother in this arrangement.
Everything Falling Apart Mid-Pregnancy
Here’s where the story takes a genuinely difficult turn. A few months into the surrogate’s pregnancy, Shepherd told Sally she wanted to end their three-year marriage. She also made it clear she no longer wanted to become a parent to this child.
On May 3, 2014, Sally filed for legal separation. In the filing, he sought full custody of their unborn child, requested spousal support and reimbursement of legal fees from Shepherd, and asked the court to invalidate their prenuptial agreement, alleging it had been obtained through fraud.
A Fight Over an Unborn Child
The situation that followed was genuinely unprecedented. Sources close to the case suggested Shepherd believed she had been misled into the surrogacy agreement, allegedly so Sally could later seek spousal support from her. Shepherd wanted no financial or parental responsibility toward the child at all.
Sally, for his part, told the Daily Mail plainly: “I want her to co-parent with me like we agreed. Sherri is the one who initiated the surrogacy and we agreed to do this together, she wanted this child more than anything.”
A Baby Born Into a Legal Battlefield
On August 5, 2014, the child was born in Pennsylvania. They named him Lamar Sally Jr., often referred to simply as LJ. Sally was at the hospital when his son arrived. Shepherd was not.
At this point, the surrogate was actually still listed as the baby’s legal mother on the birth certificate, since Shepherd had fought hard to keep her own name off that document entirely.
A Story That Made National Headlines
This wasn’t a quiet, private legal dispute. It became a genuinely sensationalized media story. Shepherd reportedly paid $30,000 to the surrogate mother at one point, after Shepherd initially refused to claim the then-unborn child as her own.
At one stage, Shepherd offered Sally a $150,000 settlement. He refused it. Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said something that captured just how emotionally raw this whole situation had become: “I don’t hate her or have any bitterness, but one day she is going to have to sit down and explain to LJ that she turned her back on him, and I don’t know how she is going to do that.”
The Court Ruling That Changed Everything
In April 2015, a Pennsylvania judge ruled that Shepherd would legally be recognized as LJ’s mother, regardless of the fact that she had no genetic connection to the child and had never intended to raise him. The court further ruled that she would be responsible for paying child support.
Shepherd appealed the decision multiple times. In November 2015, the Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld the original ruling, confirming that the surrogacy contract both parties had signed was legally binding, no matter how the relationship between them had fallen apart.
Why This Case Actually Mattered Beyond Sally’s Family
This ruling became genuinely significant for surrogacy law in America. Legal experts noted that this was one of the first cases in the nation where an intended parent tried to opt out of a surrogacy contract while the pregnancy was still underway.
Attorney Andrew Bluestein, who was involved with the case, was quoted saying this exact point to People.com, emphasizing how unprecedented Shepherd’s attempt to withdraw truly was. The ruling reinforced something courts wanted to protect: that surrogacy agreements, once signed, can’t simply be abandoned because a relationship ends or feelings change.
Raising LJ as a Single Father
Since the ruling, Sally has functioned as LJ’s primary caregiver, essentially raising him as a single father. In an interview with Page Six, when LJ was 19 months old, Sally opened up about the emotional weight of that responsibility.
He said plainly: “He’s such a good kid. He wants love and I’m scared: Am I giving him enough? Am I enough for both parents?” That’s a genuinely vulnerable admission from a father navigating an incredibly unusual situation almost entirely on his own.
The Ongoing Child Support Battle
Shepherd was ordered to pay child support, reportedly around $4,100 to $4,400 per month. That, however, was not the end of the legal dispute. Sally later sought to have that amount increased significantly, citing Shepherd’s reported annual income of upwards of $3 million.
He took the case to court in California, requesting what Shepherd’s legal team called an “exorbitant and absurd” increase, along with $75,000 in attorney fees. A judge ultimately ruled against Sally’s request, determining that jurisdiction over the child support case actually belonged elsewhere, not in California.
Sherri Shepherd’s Side of This Story
To be fair and balanced here, Shepherd has spoken about feeling “trapped” and “misled” throughout this legal battle. She’s maintained that she never wanted to be involved in raising this particular child, despite being legally recognized as his mother and financially responsible for him.
In a 2017 interview with Dr. Oz, Shepherd explained her position directly, making clear she was willing to provide financially but had no intention of being part of LJ’s day-to-day life. This is Shepherd’s own account of the situation, separate from Sally’s version, and both perspectives matter to understanding the full picture.
What Happened After the Legal Dust Settled
Once the custody and support issues were resolved through the courts, Sally appears to have relocated to Colorado at some point, based on jurisdictional details that came up during later child support proceedings.
Beyond the legal filings, there isn’t much publicly documented about Sally’s life in more recent years. He’s kept a low profile, focusing on raising his son rather than staying in the media spotlight that this case originally forced him into.
Why His Story Still Gets Discussed
Lamar Sally’s name still comes up in conversations about surrogacy law, single fatherhood, and the emotional complexity that can come from fertility treatments gone wrong. His case set a genuine legal precedent, one that’s been referenced in discussions about surrogacy contracts ever since.
Beyond the legal significance, there’s something deeply human about his story too. A man who wanted to be a father, went through years of failed fertility treatments alongside his wife, then had to fight in court just to make sure his son had two engaged parents, only to end up raising that child largely alone.
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Final Words
Lamar Sally’s story starts with football scholarships and screenwriting fellowships, the kind of steady, behind-the-scenes career path that rarely makes headlines. Then his personal life collided with a legal case that ended up reshaping how American courts handle surrogacy disputes.
Through everything, from the painful separation to the custody battle to raising LJ largely on his own, Sally has maintained a level of directness about his experience that’s rare in these situations. He’s spoken honestly about his fears as a single father and his frustration with how things unfolded, without ever losing sight of the fact that a real child was at the center of all of it.
FAQ About Lamar Sally
Q1. Who is Lamar Sally?
He is an American television writer and producer best known for his work on shows like “The Nanny” and “Rodney,” and for his high-profile divorce and surrogacy custody battle with ex-wife Sherri Shepherd.
Q2. When and where was Lamar Sally born?
He was born on August 11, 1970, in Detroit, Michigan. He is 55 years old as of 2026.
Q3. Did Lamar Sally play football before his writing career?
Yes, he earned a football scholarship to Central Michigan University and later tried out for the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons before shifting to a career in television writing.
Q4. What shows did Lamar Sally write or produce for?
He worked on “The Nanny” in the late 1990s, wrote for the 2004 ABC sitcom “Rodney,” and executive produced the 2013 comedy special “Sherri Shepherd: It’s My Time to Talk.”
Q5. How did Lamar Sally meet Sherri Shepherd?
They met in November 2009 at a mutual friend’s party in Los Angeles, became engaged in 2010, and married in Chicago in the summer of 2011.
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