STREAM EXCLUSIVE ORIGINALS

Sherri Shepherd Blames Religion For Breaking Up Her Family

The actress also says she was forced to not speak with her father.

Religion has been a big part of Sherri Shepherd’s life and she’s revealing how she believes both good and bad can come from it.

  • During an interview with Paula Farish on her “Journeys of Faith” podcast, the actress and former co-host of “The View” says she was forced to stop talking with her father because he questioned Jehovah’s Witness leader about their policies after she was punished by the church for committing a sin.

    “I was told as a young girl we had to stop talking to my dad even though he lived in our house," Shepherd said in the interview. “He worked three jobs to take care of us and I remember my two sisters telling him, ‘We can’t talk to you anymore.’ I saw him breaking down and crying.”

    Sherri Shepherd also revealed that the Jehovah’s Witness religion put a major strain on her parent’s marriage. According to her, one of her sisters found out she had lost her virginity via a diary she kept, and when she showed that entry to her mother and church leaders, Shepherd was put on reproof for six months for committing a “sexual sin.”

    “And my parents got divorced because of that, and that was another thing that kind of drew me away from the Jehovah's Witnesses," she said. “I think that was the last straw because in the Bible it says, ‘the greatest of these things is love,’ and you telling me that the man that I love, who's giving everything to take care of me, I can’t talk to?”

    Also during the interview, Sherri Shepherd revealed more details about her self-described “strict upbringing” and says she was saved by a “black Pentecostal church.”

    Listen to Sherri Shepherd’s full interview with Paula Farish below.

Latest News

Subscribe for BET Updates

Provide your email address to receive our newsletter.


By clicking Subscribe, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. You also agree to receive marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers) and other information from BET and the Paramount family of companies. You understand that you can unsubscribe at any time.