Diane Sterling (previously Gibbs and Fornell) was a woman who was the ex-wife of former NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, former FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell, and Victor Sterling, as well as the mother of Emily Fornell.
In addition to that, Diane was also a criminal investigator with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Biography[]
Pre-Series[]
Prior to the start of the series, she was formerly married to Gibbs and later Fornell, who she had a daughter with. However, their jobs and her brash behavior led to divorces. She later married for the third time, it also ending in divorce.
NCIS Season 4[]
She is seen from afar when Gibbs waited for Fornell, when Fornell dropped off his daughter at Diane's house.
NCIS Season 9[]
She plays a big part of episode Devil's Triad (episode). When her new husband, Victor goes missing she involves Gibbs and Fornell because she believes something is wrong. He becomes the prime suspect when they find security footage showing him stealing a virus and they found out he has a lot of money in a Cayman account. It is later revealed that he was used and framed and he is proven innocent. Gibbs and his team along with Fornell manages to track down the people responsible and prevent a major terrorist attack. It is revealed that Diane had cheated on Fornell with Victor.
At the end of the episode she confesses that she never loved Fornell, and that she knew Gibbs never could love anyone like he loved his first wife, Shannon. She also confesses that Gibbs is "her Shannon", meaning that Gibbs was her first and last love.
NCIS Season 10[]
NCIS Season 11[]
NCIS Season 12[]
Personality[]
She has a fiery personality and is very direct, seeming to be in a constant state of anger that she mainly directs at her ex-husbands and most current husband. She is shown to be very demanding and highly critical of others, appearing to think they cannot do things to the level she expects. While she tries to keep up certain appearances or things in her life secret from others, she feels the need to know what she wants from anyone she chooses. During a particular moment in Devil's Trifecta (episode), she opened up to Ziva about having married too young and not getting to have "wild and crazy times with friends".
Physical Appearance[]
Her appearance drastically changed from Season 4 to Season 9.
Trivia[]
- Diane's death was essentially a replica of Cait Todd's death after Sergei Mishnev was mimicking the deaths of the people closest to Leroy Gibbs.
- This also included Mike Franks & Jenny Shepard.
Appearances[]
For a more detailed list, see Diane Sterling/List of Appearances.
| NCIS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | # | |
| Season 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | 1 | |
| Season 9 | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | |
| Season 10 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | |
| Season 11 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | |
| Season 12 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | |
| Season 16 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | 1 | |
| Total | 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||