Woman At Center Of Sterling Controversy Insists She Was No Mistress
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The woman at the center of the Donald Sterling racial comments scandal is talking and trying to set the record straight.
V. Stiviano talked to Barbara Walters Friday evening and said she wasn't Sterling's mistress. She also discussed the racist rant that led NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to ban Sterling from the NBA for life.
Walters asks Stiviano if she is in love with Sterling?
She said she loved him, "like a father figure."
Stiviano also told Walters she was Sterling's assistant and "not his mistress."
KCAL9's Serene Branson said the interview reportedly took place at the Four Seasons Hotel on Doheny, in Beverly Hills.
Stiviano also told Walters she didn't believe Sterling was a racist.
"He's confused. I think he feels alone, not truly supported by those around him ... tormented," she said.
Branson reported that Sterling was also said to have planned an interview with Walters but declined to go on camera.
He did reportedly speak to the luxury lifestyle publication, DuJour, saying, "I wish I just paid her [Stiviano] off."
In the Walters interview, Stiviano acknowledged she made the tapes but insisted she was not the one who released them.