Jeff Lewis and Monroe.Photo: Source Jeff Lewis/Instagram
Alexandra Trent, the surrogate who carried Lewis and his partner, Gage Edward’s 22-month-old daughter, Monroe,brought a lawsuit against Lewis, Edward, as well as Bravo and the show’s production company, Authentic Entertainment in June.
She is seeking damages for unlawful recording, invasion of privacy and fraud.
Jeff Lewis/Instagram
He also called her claims bogus and without merit,” adding, “This smells to me like a financial shakedown.”
The off-color joke the suit refers to were filmed in an interview setup after the birth and aired on the show in a season 10 episode. Lewis remarks that, “If I was a surrogate, and I had known there was going to be an audience, I probably would have waxed. And that was the shocking part for Gage. I don’t think Gage had ever seen a vagina, let alone one that big.”
That comment — and the fact that producers had filmed her delivery — “deeply damaged Trent” and “caused incredible anguish, self-loathing, contempt and depression,” according to the legal documents.
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The file goes on to claim that Trent, whomade several appearances over two seasonsofFlipping Out,knew before she began filming that the producers could portray her in any way they saw fit. Her contract stated the show “may reveal or relate information about me of a personal, private, surprising, defamatory, disparaging, embarrassing or unfavorable nature,” the document says.
In response to the suit, Lewis claimed, “we were upfront and honest from the beginning, to the point where her appearance release was a part of the surrogacy agreement because the whole idea was to document this journey,” he said. “It was part of her agreement, it was all tied in. So how do you now say that you didn’t know you were being filmed?”
Trent’s suitclaims her labor was secretly filmedfrom behind a curtain in the delivery room and she was not aware of it until the show aired and a colleague brought it to her attention.
His surrogate is not the onlyFlipping Outcolleague Lewis has fallen out with recently.
Nicole Wilder/Bravo/Getty Images
He and Jenni Pulos, his former assistant and friend of nearly 20 years,recently parted waysafter an explosive fight. He alleges she brought complaints of “abuse and victimization,” and later wrongful termination, against him. Lewis said the claimsput his “entire career in jeopardy.” Reps for Bravo and Pulos had no comment.
Pulos is alsoMonroe’s godmother.
Flipping Outairs Tuesday nights at 10PM on Bravo.
source: people.com
