Jeff Lewis Says Surrogate's Lawsuit 'United' Him and Partner Gage Edward: 'We're a Solid Couple'
The lawsuit against Flipping Out stars Jeff Lewis and Gage Edward filed Tuesday by the surrogate mother of their 1½-year-old daughter Monroe has had one benefit: It’s brought the couple of nine years even closer together.
“Gage and I, we bicker and we argue about stupid things … But when something like this happens, we are bonded,” Lewis, 48, said Friday on his SiriusXM radio show, Jeff Lewis Live — days after telling PEOPLE exclusively about the “devastating” lawsuit. “We are tight, we are united. I feel like our relationship this week has been amazing. I never felt more like a team. We’re a solid couple.”
“I really thought we would turn on each other with this level of stress,” Lewis added. “I’ll be honest, we’re getting calls from business associates, from product manufacturers — it’s hurting my business. And Gage has been doing damage control and I’ve been doing damage control. And it’s very stressful.”
Edward agreed. “I do appreciate that and I have felt that,” he told Lewis. “It’s nice to hear. I’ve always felt that the two of us are a nice united team and it’s not a team anybody would want to cross.”
Lewis and Edward’s surrogate Alexandra Trent filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, claiming that Flipping Out producers filmed her vagina without permission and that Lewis and Edward had personally humiliated her by making “disgusting” comments on the show, according to a complaint obtained by PEOPLE.
She is seeking damages for unlawful recording, invasion of privacy and fraud. Bravo, Authentic Entertainment, Lewis and Edward are all named in the suit.
Trent was seen on multiple episodes over two seasons of Flipping Out, after Lewis and Edward hired her to carry Monroe. A season 10 episode (filmed on Oct. 25, 2016 and aired Aug. 31, 2017) documented Trent’s delivery, with Lewis and Edward — and the Flipping Out cameras — in the hospital room as it happened.
The show even captured the first moments of Monroe being placed in Lewis and Edward’s arms, for skin-to-skin contact, seconds after her birth.
During interview setups filmed afterwards and spliced into the episode, Lewis makes an off-color joke about Trent, saying, “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.”
The comment — and the fact that producers had filmed her delivery allegedly without her consent — “deeply damaged Trent” and “caused incredible anguish, self-loathing, contempt and depression,” according to the legal documents.
Reacting to the suit on Friday’s Jeff Lewis Live, Lewis got emotional.
“I feel like I’m going to cry,” he said, his voice getting shaky. “It’s the biggest form of betrayal. It’s sad and it’s upsetting. I’m really trying to focus on the positive things. I’m trying to keep it together.”
Lewis admitted that the comment he made was inappropriate. “The only mistake I’ve made in this entire process was I made this off-colored comment about her female parts,” he said. “Once it aired, I thought it was kind of funny. She reached out, said she was embarrassed by that comment and I apologized and sent flowers. I don’t think that alone warrants a multi-million dollar lawsuit.”
But he denied the fact that Trent was ever filmed without her consent, explaining that she had signed many a non-disclosure and release form, including one built into their surrogacy agreement.
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Though both Lewis and Edward said they considered Trent to be like family, they were now more upset about what will happen when their daughter uncovers this story in the years to come.
“What worries me now and what is upsetting is that our daughter, at any point in time, for the rest of her life, she has this horrible cloud,” Lewis said. “People can just Google and they know this entire story.”
“That agreement… was really meant to protect not Gage and I, but Monroe,” Lewis continued. “What worries me now and what is upsetting is that our daughter, at any point in time, for the rest of her life, she has this horrible cloud. People can just google and they know this entire story.”
Added Edward: “I don’t know what that does to [Monroe’s] psyche later. I was just hoping that was something we as two parents would be able to handle on our own terms. And tell her what we want, not a side that’s crafted by a litigator.”
All and all, Lewis said he’s trying to keep his head and his heart on his family.
“‘Just when you think everything is falling apart, it’s really coming together,’ ” he said, quoting a phrase he has pinned to his computer. “I’m really trying to focus on the positive.”
“I looked at [Monroe] and I said, ‘You are the most expensive child in the world,’ ” Lewis also said, joking. “But then I thought to myself — and we are going through hell, by the way — I would go through this 100 times over again and again and again to have this kid in my life.”
Jeff Lewis Live airs every Friday at 11 a.m. ET on Sirius XM Radio Andy (Channel 102).
