Sherri Shepherd Recalls Rapture Scare and Jail Time

Sherri Shepherd admitted this week that her belief in the rapture once landed her in trouble of biblical proportions.

The talk show host joked to her “Sherri” studio audience that she “didn’t plan” on showing up to work Wednesday — because she figured the rapture, the biblical event that some Christians believe will sweep them up to heaven with the second coming of Jesus, would’ve taken place.

She explained that her assumption was based on “a pastor in South Africa” who claimed “Jesus came to him in a dream” and revealed the event would take place Sept. 23.

“Everybody on TikTok started spreading the word that the rapture was coming yesterday,” Shepherd said. “People were getting their affairs in order, but it didn’t happen.”

Shepherd emphasized that she stands strong in her faith but said she wasn’t falling for the “okie doke” this time, because she has been through this before.

“I used to be in a religion that told me that the rapture was coming,” she said. “They told us to get our house in order, and I said, ’Why? I’m not going to need a house. Where I am going, I don’t need those worldly possessions.”

Back then, she fully committed to the narrative — so much so that she decided to forgo paying her bills, taxes and traffic tickets, convinced that the rapture would make all of these worldly acts irrelevant.

“My registration had been expired for two years,” she said. “I had, seriously, $10,000 worth of unpaid moving violations.”

Her unpaid tickets eventually escalated, because she “didn’t show up to court.” But in her mind, why bother with court when you’re preparing for eternal glory?

“Jesus don’t care about no parking tickets,” she joked. “Well, the world never ended. I went to jail.”

The comedian said she was “not expecting to go to jail,” because at the time of her arrest, she was dressed for a night on the town to perform at a comedy club.

“I went to jail for eight days,” she said. “And because I fell for the rapture, I became a hardened criminal.”