The Valley’s Zack Wickham Speaks Out After Janet Caperna Offers to Be His Surrogate
The Valley’s Zack Wickham shuts down costar Janet Caperna’s offer to be his surrogate, saying he couldn’t say no fast enough — “Oh my god, could you imagine?”
I did not have a castmate casually offering up her uterus on my The Valley bingo card, but here we are. Zack Wickham says thanks-but-absolutely-not to Janet Caperna volunteering to be his surrogate, and their friendship takes a few bumps because of it.
The on-camera offer
The moment happens in season 3, episode 6 during a group trip to San Diego. Janet, who welcomed her son Cameron with husband Jason after The Valley season 1 wrapped filming in December 2023, asks Zack and his boyfriend Benji if babies are in their future. Zack says kids are a must for Benji, and jokes that Benji can handle both him and a child like he is signing up to manage two kids. Janet then tosses out the line that launched a thousand group texts: if he needs a uterus, she is available. Jason immediately tells her to stop making that offer, and in her confessional, Janet admits she probably should not be planning Zack’s birthday, let alone carrying his child, but hey, a girl can dream.
How Zack really feels
Cut to Thursday, May 7: Zack tells Us Weekly that as sweet as the moment looked on TV, he wanted to shut it down instantly. He is not even sure what that arrangement would involve, and he reads Janet’s pitch as more playful than practical — the kind of generous-sounding thing that would turn into a backpedal if he ever took her up on it.
"I have never wanted to, like, say, 'No, thank you,' faster. Oh my god, could you imagine?"
Where their friendship is at
Even with the warm-and-fuzzy San Diego scene, season 3 does not keep Zack and Janet on smooth ground. He says viewers will see them yo-yo a bit. There is a poolside sit-down that aired in part, but according to Zack, the full conversation was longer and tougher. He felt Janet brushed off his feelings and was not especially sincere about apologizing or moving forward. Her stance, as he explains it, is that she jokes to move past conflict; his read is that the jokes look more like sweeping things under the rug. That disconnect sticks around for a good chunk of the season — and she, in turn, struggles to understand why he is pushing back from that angle.
Who is in this mix
- Zack Wickham and Janet Caperna (with husband Jason Caperna)
- Brittany Cartwright
- Jesse Lally
- Daniel Booko
- Kristen Doute
- Lala Kent
- Nia Sanchez
- Jasmine Goode
- Tom Schwartz
So yes, an incredibly kind offer in theory. In practice? Complicated, especially when the people involved are also trying to untangle real friendship issues on camera. We will see how much of that makes it to air as season 3 keeps rolling.