LOS ANGELES — Donald Sterling filed for divorce Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, almost a year after a contentious legal fight with his wife, Shelly, led to the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Court papers cited “irreconcilable differences” between the couple, who would celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary in less than three weeks.
Last year, Shelly Sterling removed her husband as a member of the family trust after two doctors declared him to be mentally incapacitated in the wake of his inflammatory recorded comments about African-Americans. That cleared the way for Shelly Sterling to agree to sell the Clippers to Steve Ballmer for a record $2 billion.
Last July, Donald Sterling called his wife a “pig” in court after her testimony in a probate hearing that examined the circumstances of the sale.
The L.A. Superior Court judge in the case ruled that Shelly Sterling acted properly in removing her husband as a trustee and negotiating the sale of the Clippers. The sale to Ballmer closed on Aug. 12, 2014, ending Donald Sterling’s 33 years as the team’s owner.
As part of the sale agreement, Shelly Sterling retained a variety of perks linked to the franchise, including being named its “Number 1 fan.”
Even after a string of legal defeats, Donald Sterling continues to fight the sale in court.
In March, he added Shelly Sterling as a defendant in his lawsuit against the NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. He accused her of conspiring with the league to sell the Clippers against his wishes.
That lawsuit said Shelly Sterling “fraudulently induced” and “fraudulently arranged” for the doctors to examine Donald Sterling last year.
This led to “extreme mental distress … including worry, anxiety, anger, embarrassment, sleeplessness and fatigue” for him, the lawsuit said.
An attorney representing Shelly Sterling didn’t immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
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