Woman in Sterling Controversy: 'He's Not a Racist'

Well, not everybody thinks LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling is a racist: V. Stiviano, the woman who started this whole mess by recording her private conversations with him, offered up some decent words about him last night to Barbara Walters of ABC News:

• On racism: "I think Mr. Sterling is from a different generation than I am. I think he was brought up to believe these things … segregation, whites, and blacks. But through his actions he's shown that he's not a racist. He's shown to be a very generous and kind man." Still, Stiviano said he "absolutely" should apologize for his remarks about black people, notes AP.

• On their relationship: Stiviano says she is his personal assistant and never had a romantic relationship with the 80-year-old. She says she loves him as a "father figure."
• 'He's hurting': "I think he's highly more traumatized and hurt by the things that he said himself. I think he can't even believe or understand sometimes the thing he says, and I think he's hurt by it. He's hurting right now."
• On how the tapes surfaced: Stiviano said she gave the tapes to friends for safekeeping and one of them leaked the audio to the media.

(More Donald Sterling stories.)