Donald Sterling was banned from the NBA for life after a racially charged conversation with his mistress was leaked to TMZ. Sterling’s mistress, V. Stiviano, is at the center of the controversy.
Stiviano has a rags to riches story and found a way to use sex, plastic surgery, and a name change to make her way to the top.
Here are 10 things to know about V. Stiviano:
1. She was born Maria Perez and raised in a small Section 8 home in San Antonio, Texas. Her mother is Mexican and her father is black.
2. Her mother was arrested in 2002 after making three of her kids steal $300 worth of groceries from a store. She was arrested, fined and placed on probation.
3. V. Stiviano suffered from acne problems and bad skin as a teenager. She eventually got plastic surgery later in life.
4. She moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and attended the same high school as Donald Sterling and his wife more than 40 years after they graduated. The school is Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles.
5. She changed her name from Maria Perez to V. Stiviano in 2010 because she faced racism due to her Hispanic name.
6. V. Stiviano eventually began a sexual relationship with Sterling and was also linked to former Lakers’ owner Jerry Buss.
7. Sterling gave her two Bentleys, a Range Rover, a Ferrari, and a $1.8 million condo. Sterling’s wife sued her over the items.
8. V. Stiviano has been linked to Snoop Lion associates Bishop Magic Don Juan and rapper Kurupt. Kurupt was photographed leaving her condo on Monday, April 28.
9. She claims that she didn’t leak the tapes, but her Instagram proves that she was preparing for a big announcement days before the tapes were published. One post read, “It doesn’t matter if your [sic], brown or white, as long as your [sic] not black.”
10. V. Stiviano is also friends with Karrine “Superhead” Steffans. She believes she will be president one day.
