Ex-Clippers owner Donald Sterling, wife Shelly decide not to divorce

Former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his wife, Shelly Sterling, have decided to remain in their six-decade marriage.

The Sterlings are opting out of the divorce that Donald Sterling filed for in August just two weeks before their 60th anniversary, according to a filing this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The move is the latest twist in the long, strange saga of the Sterlings, who ended up selling the Clippers for $2 billion to ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in the aftermath of racist comments Donald Sterling made on a recording to a friend. He was ultimately banned from the NBA.

Donald Sterling, 81, cited irreconcilable differences in his divorce filings last year and said the couple had been separated since 2012.

"Notwithstanding all the difficult events of the last two years, the Sterlings have resolved their differences,'' Donald Sterling's attorney, Bobby Samini, wrote in an email Friday to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported on the couple's reconciliation.

Pierce O'Donnell, Shelly Sterling's attorney, did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

In 2014, a recording of Donald Sterling telling friend V. Stiviano not to associate with black people led the NBA to ban him for life and fine him $2.5 million. The recording was leaked weeks after Shelly Sterling sued Stiviano, alleging she was her husband's mistress.

Donald Sterling gave caustic, combative testimony during a 2014 trial over the team's sale, saying Shelly Sterling duped him. He called her a "pig" when she tried to approach him after her testimony.

Yet the couple testified at trial last year about their enduring love for each other, displaying cards they gave each other for anniversaries and birthdays.