TIGER WOODS and Elin Nordegren announced their divorce in a joint statement yesterday, nine months after Woods crashed his Cadillac SUV into a fire hydrant outside the couple’s Florida home.
The accident opened a floodgate of revelations, including claims that Woods had sex with up to 17 women during his marriage to Nordegren.
On his website in December, he acknowledged marital “transgressions”. Then, in an extraordinary soap opera-like televised confession on February 19th, Woods said, “I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated.”
In divorce documents obtained by celebrity website TMZ, the wronged wife demanded her maiden name – Elin Maria Pernilla Nordegren – be restored.
The documents described the marriage as “irretrievably broken”. Also at Ms Nordegren’s request, a “waiving period” during which either party is allowed to reconsider was foregone, making the dissolution of the marriage official in Florida’s Bay County Circuit Court.
The divorced couple will share parenting of their children, and both are expected to live in Florida. The settlement has not been revealed, but Ms Nordegren is rumoured to have received more than $500 million (€395 million). The documents were drawn up and signed on July 3rd and 4th. Four days earlier, the Sun quoted a “pal” of Ms Nordegren saying the former nanny from Sweden would receive $750 million, believed the highest payout ever in a celebrity divorce. The same source told the Sun Woods would be banned from introducing girlfriends to daughter Sam (3) and son Charlie (1) unless he married one.
Ms Nordegren was reportedly “desperate to protect the children from the womanising side of their father”.
“We are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best for the future,” Woods and Ms Nordegren said in their statement. “We are the parents of two wonderful children and their happiness has been, and will always be, of paramount importance to both of us.”
Woods has won 14 major golf championships. He is the first athlete to have earned $1 billion in prize money and endorsements, but sponsors withdrew after the scandal. His golf performance has been very poor by his standards ever since.