Sumith Prasad
FX on Hulu’s sports drama series ‘Clipped’ chronicles the scandal that erupts when a personal audio clip of Donald Sterling, the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, gets leaked to TMZ. Sterling’s racist comments bring him and his assistant, V. Stiviano, to the limelight and public scrutiny. In reality, Stiviano became an infamous figure after the audio recording spread throughout the country. The incident gave birth to a scandal that turned around the lives of Sterling and Stiviano. A decade after the predicament, the press and the NBA followers are still curious about Stiviano, who disappeared from the spotlight years ago!
V. Stiviano: The Heart of the Scandal
Stiviano’s life changed forever when a conversation between her and her employer, Donald Sterling, was leaked through TMZ. By then, she was allegedly known as the extra-marital girlfriend or mistress of the man who owned the Clippers at the time. As per the recording, a man who is believed to be Sterling asked Stiviano not to associate with Black people publicly. “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with Black people. Do you have to?” the man in the recording said. “You can sleep with [Black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that… and not to bring them to my games,” he added.
After the publication of the recording, Stiviano had to defend herself, stating that she didn’t personally leak the audio clip. Even though her lawyer’s office validated the authenticity of the recording, Stiviano stated that the clip was leaked from a friend, who had the same after the former sent it to several of her friends. “There’s been a number of occasions where Mr. Sterling and I had conversations just like this one. This was one of very many,” Stiviano told ABC’s Barbara Walters. “Part of what the world heard was only 15 minutes. There’s a number of other hours that the world doesn’t know,” she added. By the time the scandal became the talk of the town, Stiviano was dealing with a lawsuit filed by Rochelle “Shelly” Sterling, Donald’s wife.
Shelly accused Stiviano of targeting Sterling to receive a Ferrari, two Bentleys, a Range Rover, and the lion’s share of the $1.8 million price of her duplex from the ex-Clippers owner. Stiviano had to wear a visor whenever she stepped out of her residence, especially to attend the court hearings.
V. Stiviano is Leading a Private Life
While the scandal made her an infamous figure in Los Angeles, V. Stiviano was reportedly able to finalize the adoption of two boys, aged twelve and thirteen, after serving as their foster parent for years. A few months after the scandal erupted, Stiviano was attacked by two men who shouted racial slurs. As per her lawyer, the men “punched her on the right side of her face several times” and “called her the N-word.” A man was eventually charged, and the DA involved in the case stated that the former said, “Yeah, I’ll f–king hit a girl. I’ll hit you, you n—-r bitch,” to Stiviano.
As per TMZ, Stiviano then sued Donald and Shelly for defamation, demanding $10 million in damages. In the lawsuit, she claimed that she was the “beard” of the businessman and she received the “gifts” from him for her same role. She also added that she “believes that [Sterling] is a homosexual and enjoys sexual acts and or sexual congress with males.” In April 2025, the Los Angeles Superior Court ordered Stiviano to return $2.6 million as the verdict of Shelly’s lawsuit against her. Although her lawyer tried to claim that she received the gifts while Donald and Shelly were separated, limiting the latter from seeking the gifts back from a third party, the judge-in-charge rejected the same.
The verdict meant Stiviano had to relinquish her $1.8 million-worth duplex, $800,000 in cash, and the luxury cars she received from Sterling, which prominently included a Ferrari. In August 2025, Sterling sued Stiviano and TMZ for “violating his privacy” and causing damage on a “scale of unparalleled and unprecedented magnitude.” The lawsuit was preceded by the NBA’s ban on Sterling for life, resulting in the sale of the Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. Stiviano’s lawyer responded to the lawsuit by stating that Sterling couldn’t claim the right to privacy since his remarks were made when the former’s sister was present.
However, in December 2015, Sterling dropped the lawsuit. Since then, Stiviano has stayed away from the spotlight. She was reportedly seen in and around Los Angeles several times. In 2018, TMZ encountered her outside Craig’s in West Hollywood. The outlet asked her about Roseanne Barr’s remarks, which were described as racist by many. “Everyone’s making such a big deal over every small little thing,” Stiviano told TMZ. “No one has freedom of speech anymore! No one can say what they feel because if they do, they are gonna lose their job,” she added. The 2018 interview is her most recent public appearance. She has made her Instagram account private and hasn’t been active on any other social media platforms for years.
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