Tiger Woods’ ex-girlfriend ‘tricked, locked out of the house’

Tiger Woods’s former girlfriend says she was told to pack for a holiday, but found out the real story when she got to the airport.

Tiger Woods and Erica Herman in happier times. Picture: Getty Images

Tiger Woods’s former girlfriend Erica Herman says she was tricked into packing a suitcase for a holiday only to be told she had been locked out of her house and could not go home when she got to the airport.

Herman, 39, claims that agents of a trust owned by Woods “frightened her away from returning”, removed her belongings and “misappropriated” more than $US40,000 ($60,000) when her relationship with the star ended. She is claiming $30m in actual, consequential and severe emotional damages.

The allegations were made against the Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Trust in documents filed to the circuit court in Martin County, Florida in October. Herman’s lawyer claims the trust, which owns Woods’s Hobe Sound mansion, violated the Florida Residential Landlord Tenant Act. The complaint also states: “The duties that were performed by, and expected of, the plaintiff [Herman] were extensive and of an extraordinary nature in light of the overall circumstances and environment in which she lived.”

The bitterness of the hitherto unknown split came to light after it emerged that Herman is trying to overturn a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) which she claims is being wrongfully enforced.

Her lawyers are arguing that a 2017 NDA should be nullified because of an exemption when there is evidence of sexual assault or harassment.

Tiger Woods, mother Kultida Woods (left), children Sam Alexis Woods and Charlie Axel Woods and Erica Herman last year. Picture: AFP

In the complaint lodged on Monday, Herman does not make any specific allegations against Woods, 47, but her lawyer, Benjamin Hodas, claims the NDA is not judicially enforceable because of the new “Speak Out Act”. The legislation, signed by President Biden in December, grew out of the #MeToo movement and prevents the use of NDAs if a dispute involves sexual assault or harassment.

Herman alleges that Woods and a trust under his control are aggressively enforcing the NDA and that she is unclear what details about her life she can disclose. Her lawyer also says the NDA is unenforceable because of the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021.

Woods’s manager has been approached for comment.

Herman had been with Woods for seven years and there had been no public acknowledgment of a split, although they were last seen together at the US Open tennis tournament in New York in August.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/APWoods with Herman and his daughter Sam after being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Trump at the White House in 2019

Woods was married to Elin Nordegren, but they divorced after his extra-marital affairs became public in 2009. They have two children, Sam and Charlie.

Woods opened a restaurant, The Woods, in Florida near Nordegren’s house so he had somewhere to take his children for food, and it was there in 2017 that he met Herman, who was a manager in the business. When he ended a five-year drought without a win at the Tour Championship in 2018, he embraced Herman on the final green, as he did the next year when he won the Masters.

Herman and Woods in 2019. Picture: AAP

It is ironic that the latest unwanted headlines surrounding Woods have arisen from alleged attempts to quash them. The 15-times major champion has a super-yacht called Privacy but his personal life has often been played out in the full glare of public scrutiny.

His playing feats have periodically been accompanied by off-course stories. Two years ago he almost lost his right leg in a 136km/h car crash in Los Angeles. He was extricated from the wreckage by what emergency services called “the jaws of death” and injuries sustained included comminuted open fractures to his tibia and fibula. He had a metal rod inserted and his ankle stabilised with screws and pins. Nine months later he gave his first press conference since the accident and said: “I’m lucky to be alive.”

Asked if he felt the car crash was his business and not the media’s, he said: “I feel that way with most of my life. People are going to poke and prod and want to know my business – I understand that. They can poke and prod at me all they want, just stay away from my family.”

He also explained that he had spent three months in a hospital bed, suffering “dark moments”, and amputation had been “on the table” for a time. Herman was credited for helping him through that period and he made his comeback 14 months later at the Masters, where he was 47th. That was just the latest in a long line of comebacks.

Woods underwent five back operations and a spinal fusion between 2014 and 2020 and had 466 days away from competitive golf before returning in 2016. He had another ten months out before his 2017 comeback. This all made his winning return at Augusta in 2019 a joyously celebrated sporting drama.

However, he has made plenty of unwanted headlines too. News of his infidelity prompted a spectacular fall from grace in 2009. Nordegren had chased him with a golf club and he crashed his car into a fire hydrant. In 2017, he was found unconscious in his car with the engine running and found to have taken a mix of sleeping tablets and painkillers. He pleaded guilty to reckless driving and attended a DUI offender program.

Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesWoods won his 15th major at the Masters in 2019

In recent times his popularity has hit a new peak, but he has still found himself attracting criticism. Last month, when he outdrove his friend, Justin Thomas, at the Genesis Invitational he handed him a tampon.

The inference that Thomas was playing like a woman was laughed off as banter by his backers, but the former Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson was among those who saw it as crass and sexist. He tweeted: “Still heralded after all his mistakes so he’s learned nothing. Media focus always on miraculous recovery. Never why the need for recovery.”

Woods had said he was skipping this week’s Players Championship in Florida as he prepares to play the Masters next month.

The Times