Michael Sterling, the estranged husband of The Real Housewives of Atlanta alum Eva Marcille, is ready to “fight” for their marriage.
Marcille filed for divorce last week after more than eight years with Sterling, a trial lawyer and one-time Atlanta mayoral candidate.
In an emotional statement, the Bravo alum told People that ending her marriage to Sterling “has been one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make.”
“Sometimes,” she added, “life takes your journey in a direction you were not expecting.”
But Sterling isn’t ready to give up on their relationship just yet.
“I am not going to lose my wife,” he wrote in a statement obtained by Page Six after Marcille’s filing. “I am going to win her back.”
Michael Sterling wants to ‘fight for’ Eva Marcille amid pending divorce
“I am going to fight for [Marcille] with every fiber in my being,” the trial lawyer wrote.
“I love her and I plan to show her how much I love her and that our love is strong enough to get to the other side.”
Sterling’s statement did not elaborate on how exactly he intends to “win” back his estranged wife’s affections but insisted that the lawyer is “not going to lose” Marcille.
However, the Bravo alum’s filing tells a different story.
In her divorce petition, Marcille claimed that the marriage is “irretrievably broken” and that there is “no prospect” of the couple reconciling, with the two living in what her lawyers described as “a bona fide state of separation.”
Michael Sterling and Eva Marcille’s relationship timeline
Marcille and Sterling got engaged on Christmas Day, 2017, and were married the following October in an emotional ceremony featured on a 2019 episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Marcille’s former RHOA castmates — including Kandi Burruss, Cynthia Bailey, Porsha Williams, Shamari DeVoe, Tanya Sam, and Marlo Hampton — were all in attendance; and OG star NeNe Leakes, a close friend of Marcille’s, even gave a speech for the occasion.
Marcille and Sterling have two children together: sons Michael “Mikey” Jr., who turns five next month, and Maverick, 3.
The Bravo alum also has a young daughter, Marley Rae, from a previous relationship with R&B singer Kevin McCall.
In the course of their relationship, Sterling became a second father figure to 9-year-old Marley Rae, raising her as one of his own kids and even giving her his last name back in 2020.
In her post-filing statement to People, Marcille told the outlet that the couple’s children “remain our biggest priority.”
“The eight and a half years we have spent together,” she continued, “will always be cherished.”
The Real Housewives of Atlanta is currently on hiatus.