Sterling and his attorneys filed papers to divorce his wife of almost 60 years, Shelly, Wednesday in California Superior Court, citing “irreconcilable differences”.
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Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling gestured while watching the Clippers play the Los Angeles Lakers in Los Angeles in December 2011. “Currently, one half of the sale price ($1 billion) is being held in an escrow account and have not been disbursed to my client”.
Throughout their 60-year marriage, Shelly said her husband was “not really around a lot”.
Shelly Sterling ultimately negotiated the sale of the franchise to Ballmer, a move that Donald challenged in court.
Sterling’s divorce petition initially was rejected by the court because it was incomplete and had to be refiled, attorney Bobby Samini said. Shelly Sterling controls the family trust, if you remember, because doctors declared him mentally unfit to control business and legal affairs. “We want to know where the money went”.
In the recorded conversations, Sterling criticized Stiviano for having her picture taken with black people and told her not to bring them to Clippers games.
While Shelly Sterling acknowledged marital problems, she said the couple never separated even though she had divorce papers drawn up.
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The filing comes two weeks before the couple’s 60th wedding anniversary and four months after an American judge ordered V. Stiviano, who Shelly claims is her husband’s mistress, to surrender a $1.8 million house and to pay Shelly Sterling $800,000 that Donald Sterling spent on Stiviano in cash and luxury cars. The Sterlings, who made a fortune buying apartment buildings across Los Angeles, presented a mostly unified front at trial, despite their other conflicts.
