Baby M’s Mother Sold Wedding Story to Tabloid for $20,000

Mary Beth Whitehead-Gould admitted today that she sold the story of her wedding and photos of Baby M, the child she bore under a surrogate motherhood contract, to a supermarket tabloid for $20,000 last November.

Whitehead-Gould, visibly pregnant by her new husband, told a judge deciding how often she will be able to visit the 2-year-old girl now known as Melissa Stern that she sold the story not to seek publicity but to avoid it.

Whitehead-Gould said she knew there would be widespread media interest in her November marriage to her second husband, New York accountant Dean Gould, and that she hoped the agreement with Star magazine would keep other reporters away and keep the ceremony from becoming “a three ring circus.”

Whitehead-Gould’s lawyer, Joel Siegal, said outside the courtroom that his client also was broke at the time of her marriage and needed the $20,000 to pay bills.

Whitehead-Gould’s alleged penchant for publicity has been a key issue in the visitation hearing, the final chapter in an unprecedented legal dispute over her right to change her mind and reclaim the daughter she had agreed to bear for $10,000 for a childless couple.

The couple, William and Elizabeth Stern of Tenafly, argued on the first day of the hearing Monday that Whitehead-Gould would “undermine” their parental efforts and harmfully exploit the child for publicity if allowed increased visitation.