May 31, 2022 • 39 mins
This is not your average love story.
He was destined for greatness. His father believed he was so talented he would literally change the world. He was breaking world records before he was even a professional athlete. One of his first major sponsors sort of implied he might... end racism?!
There was a lot of pressure on Tiger Woods in the first half of his career. His parents, his sponsors, his supporters, and even people who’d previously never watched a second of golf in their lives, were watching with baited breath.
But he just wouldn’t crack. Whether it was the final putt in a Masters tournament or an interview question in poor taste, Tiger Woods just wouldn’t make a wrong step. He even married the perfect woman in Elin Nordegren: beautiful, intelligent, poised, and endlessly supportive.
Oh, and then he became the centre of the biggest, most ludicrous sex scandal in modern history overnight. When it rains it pours, right?
How did Tiger Woods fall from grace so very, very hard? And how on earth did he keep the whole thing a secret for so long? Did Elin know all along? And what’s changed in the decade since?
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Hooked, Hitched and Hung Up is an iHeartRadio podcast, produced by Deadset Studios.
Hosted by Laura Byrne and Britt Hockley.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hooked, hitched and hung up. Acknowledges the traditional custodians of
country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community.
We pay our respect to their elders past and present
and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples today.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
This episode was recorded on wella Medical Land. Looks like
you've got a text there, babe?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Oh oh did I?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, yeah, Okay, who's it from. It's from my mom.
She she wants to know what to get me for
my birthday. Oh okay, your mother again? Uh no, my doctor?
Well what does he want? Is everything? Okay? Yeah, yeah,
he just wants to know what to get me my
(00:44):
mother for her birthday. Oh so he knows her mm hmm.
My manager, Oh, your manager, he wants to know what
to get my doctor for his birthday.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Oh well, there's lots of birthdays this time a year.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, it's it's a pretty busy time of year. Tiger
Woods had a lot on his plate. In two thousand
and nine, he was the most successful athlete in the world. Literally,
that is not even an exaggeration. He was a mogul
of the golf business and a role model for children
of color across the world. Oh and he was reportedly
(01:19):
juggling something like one hundred different women and try and
keep them all hidden from his wife, Elin Nordegren, busy
man me Hi, I'm Laura and Iron Britt. And this
is Hooked, Hitched and hung up where we dissect the fallouts,
the forever afters, and the biggest celebrity relationships of all time.
(01:42):
And this is one of the biggest. This is the
quintessential full from grace. We have never seen anything like
it to this day. But to understand how far Tiger
Woods fell at the end of the two thousands, you
have to understand just how high his peak was. Now,
(02:06):
this is something I assume, whether you like golf or not,
around the world, you know who Tiger Woods is. Correct.
I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I hate golfsk I know who Tiger Woods.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
But you know right, So this this story of Tiger Woods.
Before anyone checks out and says I hate golf, this
is not about golf. There are so this is like
an onion. There are so many layers to it, and
I became pretty obsessed with this story.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It has almost nothing to do with golf. I mean
a little bit, but it has.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Way more to do golfer in the world, Yes, but.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It has way more to do with like the cheating,
the scandal, like the how would you react if you
found out that your husband was a lying narcissist? You know,
like it's got so much to it. Well, I think
we need to start back at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And when I say the beginning, I'm talking about Tiger
Woods being two years old. That's really back at the beginning.
But I had no idea. At two years old Tiger
Woods was swinging a golf club with so much precision.
If you didn't see it, you wouldn't have believed it.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Old are you.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Too too? He became very very good at a very
young age, and that was because his dad was very
into golf. So he used to sit in his garage
while he was eating his little wheat bigs at two
years old, and his dad had like one of those
golf nets in the garage, so he would just hit
ball after ball after ball into the golf net. So
from age literally from a newborn to age two, little
(03:29):
baby Tiger Woods was watching his dad play golf. Then
he started to play at two years old.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I don't know any two year old that likes doing
the one thing apart from watching Coco Melon that much
that there must be some sort of like regimented parenting
that comes in here.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Oh so, very very regimented. So both his mother and
his father looking back, they were both obsessed with making
him become the best golfer of all time from a
very young age. But his dad was in the military.
His mum was just like so loving and nurturing, but
she was also very strict. She was the one that,
would you know, she she's a spank him. She's just
smack him if he was out of line. But that
was pretty common. That was nothing out of the ord
(04:03):
n different back in those days. But his dad was
a Vietnam there. Yeah, so his dad was very strict,
but they became very very close. Now. The thing with
Tiger Woods is from a very young age, Tiger Woods
made golf call I don't know. I used to look
at golf. It was like a really nerdy sport. I
was like the nerds play golf because it's it didn't
seem like he had to be very athletic. There was
(04:23):
no one that was very handsome or hot. You know,
they were all the footballers and the soccer players. Becker
could he deliver this time? Tiger Woods literally reinvented golf.
He was this hot, young, incredible superstar that came ripping through.
He went from being a very shy young boy. He
had a stutter, and he was so shy because of
(04:44):
the stutter. And the way he overcame the stutter was
every night he used to sit down with the family
dog and he used to talk to the dog until
the dog fell asleep, I know. And that's how he
got over his stutter. So Tiger was this full on
child prodigy. He was actually a freak of nature. He
featured in Golfers Digest. At five years old, he was
on Good Morning America, ESPN, CBS, NBC, ABC. Now these
(05:06):
are all American shows for those of you don't know, but
these are the big, big shows. Hey, Tiger, what's saying
I going to bring you ill? What do you wanted
to bring you? Hava? One hour and a two. He
got his first hole in one at age six, and
he started dominating the amateur competitions and winning golf scholarships
to Stanford after finishing high school.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
This poor guy is like a kid, and I'm already
waiting for his life to unravel because it's just so much.
It's so much pressure, Like no one person can carry
that much pressure for as long as he did well.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And this is the thing. He had all this pressure
on him to be the number one golfer in the world.
He had all this pressure of him to fix racism
and unite the world. And he used to talk about
this all the time. So imagine if you're a teenager
or child, and a teenager feeling that pressure on you
from two years old, that's all the poor kid had
ever known.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I mean, if there was ever a recipe for creating
someone who had like the most insane level of god complay,
because I feel like this is probably it. Sprinkle a
little bit on and there you go. Narcissism. Here we
are in the making, narcissist in the making. I want
to tell you about someone called Joe Groman.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Now, Joe is a really integral part of Tiger's life,
and he's an integral part of his story. So Joe
was a golf pro and I guess he acted like
a mentor to Tiger from a young age. He taught him,
he was a friend to him. So from thirteen basically
till he turned pro, I literally, you know, had him
all to myself at the Navy golf of course. So
he's a caddy for him, his junior stuff played in
practice with him every single day for years. But Joe
(06:34):
often talks about Tiger's dad. Tiger's Dad's name is Earl.
They all used to play golf together all the time,
and Joe often talks about the fact that there was
this level of insane It almost came across as taunting,
and I guess a level of bullying that Earl used
to inflict on Tiger on the golf course. And the
first time it happened, Tiger would be making a shot
(06:55):
and at the critical time his dad would start to
talk to him or would walk part like kick his
foot a little bit with jingle his keys a little bit.
Was like very rude and obnoxious, and Joe was like,
bro at the end, after a couple of times, Joe
was like, Bro, what are you doing? Like this is
really rude. We all know that we should be respectful
on the golf course and have silence when someone's taking
(07:15):
it apart and you're like literally literally belittling your child. Yeah,
but Earl had said, no, this is this is part
of his training. I'm teaching him to be able to
block out excess noise. So in a way I get
what he's saying because when you've seen when people playing golf,
there are huge crowds, there are people talking, there are
outside noises, distractions. So he was trying to set him
(07:37):
up so that he could block out everything and take
the shot. And it worked because Tiger his tactic was
to almost hypnotize himself. So when he was taking a
shot and you can see it happening, he glazes over
and it's like he's not even there anymore. It's like
he's a different person, glazes over, blocks everyone out, hypnotizes himself,
takes a shot, and he's a freak like he almost
never never misses. You just sort of like drop into
(07:58):
another zone and you block out everything.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
That's really helped me. It just seems like such a
toxic imbalance of power between a dad and a son.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I mean, in hindsight, it for sure was. There was
definitely an imbalance and it was a very strange relationship.
But what it allowed Tiger to do is and everyone
used to say, on the course, he was a different person.
He had like this double life. He was able to
compartmentalize what happened on the golf course to what happened outside,
and that is probably how he ended up having the
life he did.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Okay, So, was anything about Tiger Woods's childhood in quotation
marks normal?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I mean probably one thing. He did have a childhood sweetheart.
Her name was Dina, and she was his very first girlfriend. Now,
even in high school. Dina says that he's I mean,
we're talking about fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, like high school boys.
But he's already a freak at golf, and she says,
already people would swarm him. There were already so many fans.
(08:51):
But they had a really beautiful relationship until one day
out of the blue, even though they're in love, even
though nothing had gone wrong, she thought the relationship was fine,
she gets a letter from Tiger.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Wait, I'm sorry, before you get into what the letter said,
How the hell does the letters still exist?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Like?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Who has who keeps a hold of a letter from
when they're fifteen they get broken up with.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I have a sentimental box of stuff from when I
was a teenager.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Of breakup letters your ex boyfriend when you were fifteen.
You keep that.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Dina still has it. She we see Dina in the
Tiger documentary. We see her read out the note. So like,
I'm not even making this shit up. I don't know.
I mean, I feel like to die. I threw out
my box.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I had a box, and then during one bad breakup,
I threw out my entire box. Also had some very
important things like funeral notices from my grandparents, and so
it was horrible. I just was like, I'm done with
this part of my life.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Threw it all out. Well, this is really sad because
from all accounts, they were a young couple in love,
first love. There's nothing like your first love, and she
was blindsided. He started to obviously, you know he's a
horny teenager as well. You start to spend time with
your girlfriend like he thinks with his penis. He wants
to be around her, They want to be together. His
parents don't like that because because that doesn't go with
the idea of him becoming this prodigy, this golf prodigy.
(10:04):
So they make Tiger break up with Dina. So what's
the letter? All right, I'm going to read to you, Dina.
The reason for writing this letter is to inform you
that my parents and myself never want to talk or
hear from you again. Reflecting back over this relationship, I
feel used and manipulated by you and your family. I
(10:26):
hope the rest of your life runs well for you.
I know this is sudden and a surprise, but it is,
in my opinion, much warranted. Sincerely, Tiger, what them okay?
What an a personality type? Or his mum wrote that?
Year old kid is writing that.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Also, Like you're imagine getting your mum to write your
breakup letter for you.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Imagine being Imagine being in love, nothing's wrong, and then
you get a letter saying psych never want to see
you or speak to you again, you or your family.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I think the worst part of that is like being
accused of being manipulative, especially when the letter itself is
what is manipulative?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Like, there's obviously an ulterior motive, and that's because it's
taking away attention, energy and focus from this blooming golf career.
But that was the real that was the real catalyst
for this breakup.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah, and it comes It's so evident it comes from
his parents because we are then shown in this documentary.
We're then shown Tiger's dad, Earl, giving a speech and
talking about him in front of a whole crowd. This
is what his dad says. He will transcend this game
and bring the world a humanitarianism which has never been
known before, the world will be a better place to
(11:38):
live in by virtue of his existence and his presence.
I acknowledge only a small part in that, in that
I know that I was personally selected by God himself
to nurture this young man and bring him to the
point where he can make his contribution to humanity. It
is golf we're talking about, and he's a teenager and
(11:59):
you are not God, God talking about Like, that's.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
The thing that's so crazy, is like the fact that
this is the whole thing was put on such a pedestal.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
And I understand.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I know that there is like the media surrounding him,
like the money as well, the fame.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
All of that is like it creates this God complex.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
But is there any wonder why he couldn't keep a
normal relationship together anyone.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Dick in his pants? No, He's essentially been told his
whole life is God. Of course he thinks he can
go and do what he did. And speaking of pressure,
you have to imagine there was a lot of extra
external pressure, like racism. So this is a time where
you know, people of color weren't even allowed to play
on a lot of courses. And in nineteen ninety, there
is an interview with Transworld Sport and Tiger says, every
(12:46):
time I go to a major country club, you always
feel it, why are you here? You're not supposed to
be here. So as a really young kid, even though
he's turning into someone that's going to be the best
in his sport, he still wasn't and didn't feel welcome,
and he feels like he sticks out like a sore thumb. Well, yeah,
and I guess he did because this was very much
a male dominated, white sport. It's like the whitest of
(13:09):
white sports. Yeah. Well, the course that he actually won
his first Masters is called Augusta. They didn't even have
a black member until nineteen ninety. They didn't even have
a female member until twenty twelve. There are even stories
about Tiger not even being able to change in the
same change room as his friends and competitors, like he's
playing with them, he's out there, he's whipping their butt.
He can't even change in the same change room. Could
you imagine why couldn't he change in the He was
(13:29):
a person of color. That's just what it was. And
I think it's very easy for us to all forget that,
to have a level of ignorance and not realize exactly
what was going on.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
That is so outrageous, isn't it that that was Like,
I mean not even was it in our lifetime, Like,
it's so recent that this was happening.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So he left college at twenty years old to turn pro.
Pretty much, he signed with Nike and Titleists straight off
the bat, and they were the most lucrative sponsorship deals
in the history of golf. So think of this twenty
year old now that's already been told he's God, that
has just been given from nothing, all this money. All
of a sudden, he's got more money than you could
ever spend.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You have the pressure of the media frenzy surrounding it,
but then you also had the pressure of the monetary
aspect of it too.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
As the world looking in watching Tiger play golf, we
saw somebody that he was like a sociopath. This showed
no motion unless he won or did something that was really,
really brilliant. He would not laugh, smile, really talk to anyone.
But when he won a tournament, that was when it stopped.
He was like switched off, was happy, hugged his dad,
hugged his caddy wave to the audience. But whilst he
was playing, he was just like a robot. But we
(14:31):
saw him rise to number one faster than anyone else
in history. So he became number one in nineteen ninety seven,
and he remained number one longer than anyone else ever.
Had two hundred and sixty four weeks in a row.
So that's two hundred and sixty four weeks in this
little pressure cooker that was his life. There are cameras
always on him. There's this pressure to not lose your
(14:51):
number one spot. You need to stay there now you've
got there. The pressure of the world, the pressure of Nike,
the pressure of sponsors, discipline.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
When you're at this point and at the top of
your game, I don't really have time for love and relationships.
And we know that this is a podcast about the
love and the relationships that have blossomed and probably turned
into a shitfire. Where does aline come into this right now?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Funny you should ask. At the top of his game,
he's number one, he can't get better, probably couldn't get
more money. Well, actually he got a lot more money.
Top of the world, handsome, killing it. This is where
he meets Elin Nordegren. But let me tell you, Laura,
being the number one golfer in the world does not
make you cool. And Tiger Woods was not cool yet.
(15:34):
I mean that came later, but he was not cool.
So wait, let me guess. Did Tiger get his mum
to ask her out? Well, it's not that bad, but
actually it's it's pretty close. Elan, hi, Hi, listen, I'm
actually getting a little bit nervous. Nervous, nervous. Why I'm okay,
(15:54):
I'm okay, I'm okay, okay, you can do it. Okay.
I came over to actually ask you out. Oh you did? Yeah,
not for me on behalf of Tiger Woods. Sorry wait
what wait?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
So Tiger Woods, Yes, Tiger Woods, top of his game,
professional sports player, supposedly the coolest of the cool of
the cool. He got his friend to ask her out. Yes,
he couldn't even do it. Wait, just like he got
his mum to write the break up letter when he
was fifteen.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Ye're seeing a pattern here, people. He's not his own human.
He literally he was too nervous. But look in his defense,
if you guys haven't seen Elin and what she looks like,
she is so beautiful. I'd be scared in my pants too.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
This is the problem, okay, when you're not used to losing,
when you're not used to rejection, it makes it so
much scarier. Like he has never had to deal with
these sorts of things because he's always been a winner.
So putting yourself in a situation where you might not
be a winner is really really frightening.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I'm sorry though, But if I'm an adult, which I
am luckily, so I can talk about the fact. I mean,
that would be so crazy, brittanythetically, if I were an adult,
if somebody asked me out for their friend for a friend,
it is laughable. It would unless it's Sam Hewan or
one of my hall passes. I would be like, what
a childish immature, and I would think it was a joke.
(17:14):
I'd feel like I was sixteen years old and it
was like a prank. You know, when you send at
school and you're like, will you go out with me?
And you have two boxes. Yes, no, maybe you'd always tick,
maybe because you're like, I'll make him sweat it.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
It makes you a bit of a scaredy pants. It's a
little bit you're a little bit of a loser.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Imagine having one hundred million dollars and be like, make
can you go ask that girl out? Anyway? Where was
he hiding? Like in the corner, like is he steady tree?
And behind like the wet weather shed just in case
he's like holding up his golf club behind the golf
club volcano dying.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I mean, we can make fun of all this and
how it wouldn't really fly for us, but apparently it
worked for Elin.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Well actually no, I mean yes I did. Eventually she
thought it was ridiculous, so she said no, she wasn't interested,
and she was quite like a reserved and shy person.
And that life at this sporting life, the famous life,
the athlete life. She'd been around it a lot. She'd
been on that golf tour a lot with other golfers.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Now the reason why before anyone thinks she was just
making the rounds, she was a nanny for a golfer.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
She was a nanny for another golfer, for another couple.
So she had been around that area for a long
time and she wasn't. It didn't impress her, so she
said no. He kept hassling it. He kept calling the
house that she worked at, asking if he.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Started doing this or was it somebody else. Hey, I'm
just calling you on behalf of Tiger Woods again. He
would like to take you out for dinner.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
No, he started to just call the house and ask
her out. She eventually said yes. They started dating, and
they fell in love, and all of a sudden they
were seen everywhere together. She was very supportive. She was
always on the tours, she was always in the crowd,
and they were just this beautiful, like the most beautiful
couple of all time.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Imagine going from being like the nanny to some other
golfer to being Tiger Woods's plus one.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Totally with one hundred million dollars. I mean, I didn't
kill what anyone says, one hundred million dollars is a pricing. Yeah,
it makes you penny struck a little bit, doesn't it?
From that?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
This is holl Titched and hung Up, where we take
you through the most momentous love stories of our time,
and today it's Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren, the woman
who would become his wife, and then his ex wife Britt.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
What do we know about Elan? Now, we don't actually
hear a lot from Elan because she's a private person.
It's actually hard to dig up any information from her,
or quotes or anything like that. Her friend had come
forward and say, Elan told me that he didn't make
a great impression on her. At first. She had her
opinions about celebrities and they were not high, and she's
very shy, so the idea of joining that world was
(19:33):
not appealing to her, and when he asked her out,
I think she turned him down at first. She gradually
was convinced that she should give him a chance, and
so they did go out. Initially, her reaction was what
the hell was that? She thought it was so weird
and pathetic, So of course she said no, referring to
when he sent old mate over to ask her out.
(19:54):
So she definitely wasn't about that life. And I guess
a little bit of history about Elin is her family
were doing just fine on their own, so she was
really worried that she'd be perceived as like this gold digger.
But her mum was a very successful politician. Her twin
sister ended up being a lawyer. They didn't really want
for money, and they had a level of intelligence and
(20:18):
success that she thought was enough. She didn't think she
needed to go and chase money or somebody that was
so highly successful that would put a spotlight on her.
I think she was comfortable in the life that her
and her family had.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
There was a part of this where she resisted becoming
a wag, you know, because as you know, like if
you're going to date someone who's a professional sportsperson, your
dreams and ambitions come second to their career.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Well, she was at one of the top one hundred
universities in the world. She did child psychology. She's not
an idiot. She then on the side, she was a model,
Like what more could you want? Match smartin that wealthy
and that hole. I can't imagine, but I would love
to imagine. Okay, fast forward to two years of dating
Bliss and the world being obsessed with them. We find
ourselves in two thousand and three, and we find ourselves
(20:59):
in South Africa. So Tiger took Elind there to one
of the tournaments. Now, a little crisis happened here when
Tiger's team went into a bit of a meltdown. What happened, Well,
they lost him, They lost him in South Africa. They
lost Tiger and Elan, So they're all having his meltdown,
like what's happened? But he came back a couple of
hours later and Elin had a big, big, big fat
(21:19):
engagement ring on her finger. So they had disappeared. He
had proposed it, had their own little moment of privacy,
and they came back engaged. They're engaged. They get married
in two thousand and four with like a huge It
was a two million dollar affair because he rented out
an entire complex for a week, so they rented out
Sandy Lane Resort in Barbados. It was a golf course
of course, the whole thing, so it could be private.
(21:39):
It wasn't private. The paparazzi ended up coming in. It
was a whole big kerfuffle. They don't have a private
moment again in their life. But they get married, as
we are all shown, it's a very beautiful affair. In
two thousand and seven, they welcomed their first child. They
had a daughter called Sam and then their second child,
which was a son, Charlie in February of two thousand
and nine. So, now to the world, they're a really
beautiful family unit. They've got two beautiful kids, they got
(22:00):
all the money. They're beautiful.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
They're like absolute couple goals at the top of their game.
They are the pinnacle of what a perfect little family
looks like.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
This is a thing, isn't it. When you're at the peak,
you're at the very top. There is literally nowhere else
to go but down and down. He went on many women,
he went down on anywhere. I love it when I
nail it. So in two thousand and six, there, okay,
so he does his life does start to unravel. In
(22:30):
two thousand and six, he his dad, Earl dies. Now
they have both done so many interviews over the years,
stating both of them that they're each other's best friends,
that they're each other's entire world. And his dad wasn't
an angel. His dad and his mom had been married
their entire life, and from the outside it looked like
they had a beautiful family unit. His dad was chasing
tail NonStop on the golf course, and Tiger knew that.
(22:53):
Tiger saw that his dad had been cheating on his mum,
Tiger's caddy Joe was doing the same thing. So as
a young kid, the only two men that you have
in your life are cheating on their partners, are cheating
on their.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Wife and setting this precedent as though that is normal,
because like what is normal to him, his version of
normal in this world is so warped in comparison what
the rest of us experience totally, and his life, as
much as he's experienced so much, has been so incredibly
sheltered at the same time, like he's lived in this
little tiny bubble of a world and hasn't been exposed
to all the different things that a normal person would
(23:29):
be exposed to.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
So after his dad dies, Tiger decides to go and
train with the Navy Seals. Like, I mean the hallmark
of like the.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Will having a life criss is and going to join
the military.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Like you have all the money in the world, you're
a top athlete, you careen out of control and you're like,
I'm going to the Navy Seals to be put through
the ring, and they did. He one day on the
golf course tells his caddie, Steve Williams. He's like, that's it.
I'm quitting golf and joining the Navy Seals. So he
was going to give up his career, his entire career,
and go and join the Navy Seals. Like, this is
a man that wasn't thinking straight.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Okay, So at this point Tiger has joined the military
and the wheels are well and truly falling off the
bandwagon and he is in a full blown, swinging midlife crisis. Now,
I know that the story gets progressively worse from here,
But what happens next?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
All right? Two thousand and nine is when shit hits
the absolute fan. So we start by seeing the National
Inquirer publish a story front page that alleges that Woods
had an affair with New Yorker Rachel Yucatel. We learned
that Tiger had many mistresses, he cheated many many times,
but she, unfortunately for her, became the absolute face of cheating.
(24:35):
She was the pin up girl of the cheating scandal. Absolutely,
she was a babe. She was managing a nightclub that
he frequented a lot. Now, he went there with a
lot of other athletes, but she used to run the club,
so she her job was to make sure that when
these people came, when these athletes came, they had the
best night of their life. She obviously took that too
seriously because she went home with him and she's like,
(24:55):
I'm going to give you the best night of your life.
But that is how they met, and that is how
their love of started. And I called it a love
affair because it went on for a very long time,
and they said they were in love with each other.
She was utterly obsessed and in love with him.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
But I guess the thing with this is, obviously Rachel
knew the Tiger Woods was married and that he had
two kids and a lovely wife at home, but she
probably had no idea the depths of his deception as
well the fact that he had many mistresses and she
was also one of many. She probably felt like she
was the chosen one and she was the only person
that he had these extramarital affairs with.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Later on, when it did all unravel, a lot of
women came out thinking that they were in love and
they were the chosen one, as you just said. But
it unraveled in Australia. So the National Inquirer had a
bit of an inkling close to home. Yeah, well, they
had a bit of an inkling something was going on,
and he was playing a tournament here in Australia, and
he had called Rachel and said, I can't be there
without you, I can't win without you. They obviously had
(25:52):
this very strong bond, so he flew her to Australia
led the Tennaspy City just turned to learning about one Man,
Thank You, and that is where there were photographs of them.
That's where it was released, and that's where everything went down.
So where is Elin while all this is happening. Elin
was at home with the kids because she's got two
little kids, and obviously you trust your husband to be
able to go and do his sport on the other
side of the world without having an affair, without flying
(26:14):
in his mistress Publicly, they Tiger and Rachel, they say
they thought they got away with it because it was
like trashy mag No one's looking into it privately. Elan's
obviously clocked this and it hasn't felt right with it
because she does some investigating herself. And two days later
is when it all unravels. Two days later is Thanksgiving.
It's two thousand and nine, and Tiger ends up having
a very famous now single vehicle car accident outside his
(26:37):
mansion in Florida.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I remember that when this all imploded and the articles
all came out, and it was like just the most
insane unraveling which all sort of was like all centered
around this car crash.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, so he had a black escalade and he crashed
into a fire hydrant and then the fire hydrants sort
of like careened him into a tree. There are some
stories from the tabloids that say Elin had chased him
down the street she had found out he cheated and
she was like smashing his car with his golf club
and that that had caused the crash. But then they
(27:11):
had said, well, no, that's not true. She was actually
saving him and she had he had crashed and she
had to smash the window to help get him out.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Okay, there's a few parts of this that don't add up. Firstly,
and this is like where the detective work comes in.
If he had had a crash, why would you go
smashing the back window to drag someone who's one hundred
kilos out the back window?
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Well, plain that to me. I mean there were smashes everywhere.
But this is the thing, none of it really makes sense.
I mean, like I don't even want to speculate when
I'm going to I reckon she cracked it. I don't
think she was trying to save him. I think I
think she cracked it and she was mad as you
fucking would like, well, do you want to know why.
Let's rewind a couple of hours to how Rachel tells
us it went down, the reasons why she cracked it.
(27:54):
It's Thanksgiving. They're in their home now. After this, Enquirer
came out saying that Tiger had had this affair this
front page. This was only two days prior. So Tiger
had orchestrated a chat between Rachel and Elin, his mistress
and his wife, so that Rachel could explain that nothing
was going on, how they knew each other, why she
was in Australia. It was all this big story that
(28:15):
was ready. They had their chat for half an hour
and this is all being told by Rachel the mistress.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Mike. This is like a cover up, Like Tiger has
gone to the effort of trying to create a cover
up and get his mistress on board to deny that
it's ever happened.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Of course, and she does stand it, so she does.
They think they get away with it. It's late at night,
they're going to bed. Tiger takes sleeping tablets to go
to bed, so this is quite widely known. He doesn't
sleep without them. So he texts Rachel and says, thank you,
I'm taking my sleeping tablets now and I'm going to bed.
They say goodnight. Then Rachel gets a text message from
(28:50):
Tiger after his said goodnight that says when while I
see you again. Then a call from Tiger, so she
answers it and she says, Babe, I thought you were
going to bed, And there's a woman on the other
end that is Elin, that says I knew it was you.
For some reason, I do feel really sorry for Rachel
as well, because I feel like she got sucked into
a world that she didn't have any understanding of how
(29:12):
deep it was going to be. And you can tell
that she genuinely she knew she did the wrong thing,
but she genuinely loved him. But in that moment, I
just feel sorry for everyone. Like imagine being Elin calling
and hearing her voice on the other end, Hey, babe,
but you're going to say after you've just talked for
half an hour, and she's like, nothing's going wrong.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I just I also remember just how badly both of
these women were painted in the media, like how negative
and how nasty. Some of the commentary and the articles
were like Elin who Obviously it's speculation whether or she
did or she didn't smash this card to pieces, but
there is this article that was written in The Mirror,
and it paints her like she's absolutely hysterical, crazy, and
(29:53):
like you would be crazy if you had just discovered
text or just discovered that your whole life, everything that
you believe your partner wasn't true, and that they were
having an affair, and like, sure, maybe you wouldn't necessarily
grab a golf club and smash in his back windows,
but we don't even know if that actually happened. And
the Mirror wrote this article that was like step by
step detail around how she turned into a lunatic when
(30:15):
she found out this information, and it's all speculation. Looking
back in history, anytime any situation remotely has come forward
like this, it's always the women that are attacked in
the media. And at the end of the day, Tiger
was having the affair. He was making Rachel feel like
she was the one and something really special. For a
very long time, he was cheating on his wife. But
no one targeted Tiger quite like they targeted the two
(30:36):
women in this story, which is really sad to see.
I mean, he did have a very spectacular fall from
grace as much as the women got embroad. It's like,
you know, Rachel became the temptress and Elian became the
hysterical wife. Like there was like the caricatures that were
painted of both of them. Tiger just became a bit pathetic.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
After it all. Well, this is when the story came out,
so everyone knew that he'd had an affair, and this
is when everyone else came out of the woodwork. So
there was another published article. US Weekly published it. A
woman named Jamie Grubbs. She was a cocktail waitress. She
came forward and was like, yo, I've had a thirty
one month affair with Tiger too. So she had text
messages and voicemails and like it started to it started
(31:15):
to be like, you can't hire this anymore. You have
to accept, you have to own it, because there's no running.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
These women would have been coming out because they would
have felt betrayed, like so many of them would have
felt like, especially if you've had a thirty one month
affair with someone Tiger would have made three years. But
Tiger would have made her feel like she was the
only one. And I'm sure he was saying, oh, yeah,
my marriage with Elen, like you know, I can't leave.
We've got two kids, it's on the rocks. It's so terrible.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Blah blah blah blahla.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Poor Aleen thinks that like everything is great, but like
he would have been saying those lies to each one
of his mistresses, So when it all unfolded and came out,
they would have been angry because they would have felt
lied to.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
And that's why they've also gone to the media. The
people that came out after that, like he very much diversified.
There was a porn star, a pancake house waitress, a
Las Vegas club promoter. Yeah, he didn't stay in one lane.
He was like a bit of years had once. Yeah,
he's like you get a Tiger, and you get a Tiger.
He just like gave himself out like thought he was Oprah.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
But isn't this interesting going back to this whole like
and what we spoke about at the very beginning, how
he was so great at compartmentalizing, how he had one
life that was like his public media personal family life
that everyone thought he was just the most incredible, like
family man, he was so successful. And then on the
flip side, he had this, he had this like very
(32:31):
dark underbelly that all became exposed.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I want to know how he met the pancake house waitress.
I didn't think an athlete had being in pancake probably
on a Saturday morning after a few once. Well, anyway,
one hundred plus women come forward apparently to say that
they had had an affair, and I think they just
stopped counting at that. I think they get to one
hundred and they're eight. Let's just just do one hundred plus,
like just the plus in at the end. Well, in
twenty ten, he apologizes on national television in front of
(32:55):
family and friends, and he announces that he is going
to be leaving golf for a little while to focus
and try and save his marriage, which spoiler doesn't work. Actually,
can we get some sob story music here? Someone, if
there's anyone around that could just pop that in.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I have Tiger's apology right here or handy on final
I wonder if he got his mum to write this one.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Probably yeah, I know my actions were wrong, but I
convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply. I never thought
about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself.
I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple
should live by. I thought I could get away with
whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked
hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the
(33:35):
temptations around me. I felt I was entitled thanks to
money and fame. I didn't have to go far to
find them. I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't
get to play by different rules. It's a good apology,
it's he owned it, for sure, but the fact that
he's like literally saying, yeah, I felt like I was god.
I felt like I deserved it. I worked so hard
(33:56):
I get to do whatever I want, And like, for sure,
you probably did do it before you get married, But
this is my thing. I'm like, you could have. You
could have played around as much as you wanted before
you got married. But I guess you know.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
And this is absolutely not making excuses for the behavior.
But I think with the context around how he was raised,
with the context around how and what he was exposed
to from his own parents, as in from his dad
and from the person who was his mentor. I just
think that, like, his world is a world that we
can't relate to, and his world and what he was
(34:29):
exposed to is so hugely and vastly different that it
also makes you makes you look at the circumstances and
go Not that I condone it, but I understand why
he cheated and why he acted the way he acted
because the guy had some like very very flawed upbringings,
and he had some hugely flawed ideal ideologies around relationships.
He thought they didn't the rules don't apply to him
(34:50):
because they've never applied to him.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Yeah, and the real person that was heard here obviously
is Elin. She'd stood by her husband for a long time,
but it was what happened to her in the aftermath.
And Tiger's friends come out to say, like he could compartmentalize,
like we spoke about earlier, this hypnotizing on the course,
he could compuntmentalize his life like no one else could,
so he had a double life. Elin had only just
found this out, so she thought the Tiger she got
(35:14):
was this incredible athlete, an incredibly loving husband, an amazing father,
that was just so obsessed with his kids, and she
thought that's what it was, and she got Jekyll and Hyde.
There was a party animal that went to Vegas constantly
with other athletes, up to one hundred and twenty women.
Is reported that he cheated on her with was partying,
was doing cocktails of drugs, like literally two different people.
(35:34):
And she's only just finding this out. And then on
top of that, what happened to her after the harassment
that she received from the media and the paparazzi, and
this footage of her trying to walk down the street
with her kids and journalists and paparazzi are yelling out
to her, have you had an STD check yet? Have
you had an STND check yet? But just the audacity
of the abuse that she received after she was already
(35:55):
going through a heartbreak, I just can't even fathom.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
And it's also the shaming, you know, it's like she
had no knowledge and she had no input in this,
in his wrongdoing, but it's the shaming of her. And
like like we said earlier, this like making her look
like she was hysterical, making her look like she was
unhinged because of the separation and because of what he'd done,
and it's so unfair to judge her actions based on
(36:18):
his actions and her reaction based on his actions.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Well, look, if anything is going to make it better,
it's the approximate one hundred million dollars I repeat, one
hundred million dollars that she got in the divorce settlement.
But at the end of the day, how much is
enough to lose your entire family? Like, yes, she got
one hundred million dollars, but everything she knew and loved
completely fell apart, and she lost what she thought was
(36:43):
her happy ever after.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
I wonder, like, I mean, that would play on your
mind so much. You would never be able as much
as he's meant to be this king of compartmentalizing, you
would never be able. I don't think anybody could compartmentalize
those two worlds.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Once they'd unraveled, there was a pretty tumultuous time for Tiger.
He was very, very up and down. They ended up,
and now Elan says they they ended up becoming friends.
They're quite close again, they're not together. Elan has now
had another baby with this really really like super hot,
definitely my type hot footballer. I'm married football and the Yeah,
(37:17):
they've had a little baby, and she's she's really happy,
and she says that they do have a really good
relationship now because at the end of the day, she's like,
was he a good husband to me? No, he did
the wrong thing, but he's a very good father. So
they co parent very very well.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
It takes such an incredibly strong woman to be to
be betrayed the way that she was betrayed and then
to go on and amicably and in a friendly, kind
way co parent with that other person, because you would
they'd be a part of you that would be like,
I don't ever want someone like you around my children.
I don't want you as a role model around my children.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
But not only did Elin find her happiness, Tiger has
been in a relationship for around three years now and
he's very very happy, and they're all very happy in
terms of interacting together. Elan is really happy with Tiger's
new partner. Tiger's kids really loved Tiger's new partner. So
I feel like whilst it was a pretty hectic journey,
they all got there in the end, so we all
(38:12):
love to see a happy ending. So that is a
story of Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren and the pancake waitress,
the infidelity, the car crashes like that is the story,
the tumultuous story that at the end has a happy ending.
But I hope you learned something. I'm Britt and I'm
Laura and this is Hooked, Hitched and Hung Up, a
(38:35):
podcast from iHeart Podcast Australia, dead Set Studios and a
Kiss Network.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Make sure you're follow in your podcast at because there
are some really interesting relationship stories coming your way soon.
And if you haven't listened to the episode before, there's
a go back and catch up because your girls did
some great research here and we are talking about Monica
Lewinsky and the President of the United States and that
gap dress that you know should have been put in
a bin. Men Mountain, Jason Moer and how him married
(39:00):
his childhood TV crash.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
See you next time for some more breakups and makeups
and sex and romance.
Hooked, hitched and hung up. Acknowledges the traditional custodians of
country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community.
We pay our respect to their elders past and present
and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples today.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
This episode was recorded on wella Medical Land. Looks like
you've got a text there, babe?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Oh oh did I?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, yeah, Okay, who's it from. It's from my mom.
She she wants to know what to get me for
my birthday. Oh okay, your mother again? Uh no, my doctor?
Well what does he want? Is everything? Okay? Yeah, yeah,
he just wants to know what to get me my
(00:44):
mother for her birthday. Oh so he knows her mm hmm.
My manager, Oh, your manager, he wants to know what
to get my doctor for his birthday.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Oh well, there's lots of birthdays this time a year.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, it's it's a pretty busy time of year. Tiger
Woods had a lot on his plate. In two thousand
and nine, he was the most successful athlete in the world. Literally,
that is not even an exaggeration. He was a mogul
of the golf business and a role model for children
of color across the world. Oh and he was reportedly
(01:19):
juggling something like one hundred different women and try and
keep them all hidden from his wife, Elin Nordegren, busy
man me Hi, I'm Laura and Iron Britt. And this
is Hooked, Hitched and hung up where we dissect the fallouts,
the forever afters, and the biggest celebrity relationships of all time.
(01:42):
And this is one of the biggest. This is the
quintessential full from grace. We have never seen anything like
it to this day. But to understand how far Tiger
Woods fell at the end of the two thousands, you
have to understand just how high his peak was. Now,
(02:06):
this is something I assume, whether you like golf or not,
around the world, you know who Tiger Woods is. Correct.
I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I hate golfsk I know who Tiger Woods.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
But you know right, So this this story of Tiger Woods.
Before anyone checks out and says I hate golf, this
is not about golf. There are so this is like
an onion. There are so many layers to it, and
I became pretty obsessed with this story.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It has almost nothing to do with golf. I mean
a little bit, but it has.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Way more to do golfer in the world, Yes, but.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It has way more to do with like the cheating,
the scandal, like the how would you react if you
found out that your husband was a lying narcissist? You know,
like it's got so much to it. Well, I think
we need to start back at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And when I say the beginning, I'm talking about Tiger
Woods being two years old. That's really back at the beginning.
But I had no idea. At two years old Tiger
Woods was swinging a golf club with so much precision.
If you didn't see it, you wouldn't have believed it.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Old are you.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Too too? He became very very good at a very
young age, and that was because his dad was very
into golf. So he used to sit in his garage
while he was eating his little wheat bigs at two
years old, and his dad had like one of those
golf nets in the garage, so he would just hit
ball after ball after ball into the golf net. So
from age literally from a newborn to age two, little
(03:29):
baby Tiger Woods was watching his dad play golf. Then
he started to play at two years old.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I don't know any two year old that likes doing
the one thing apart from watching Coco Melon that much
that there must be some sort of like regimented parenting
that comes in here.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Oh so, very very regimented. So both his mother and
his father looking back, they were both obsessed with making
him become the best golfer of all time from a
very young age. But his dad was in the military.
His mum was just like so loving and nurturing, but
she was also very strict. She was the one that,
would you know, she she's a spank him. She's just
smack him if he was out of line. But that
was pretty common. That was nothing out of the ord
(04:03):
n different back in those days. But his dad was
a Vietnam there. Yeah, so his dad was very strict,
but they became very very close. Now. The thing with
Tiger Woods is from a very young age, Tiger Woods
made golf call I don't know. I used to look
at golf. It was like a really nerdy sport. I
was like the nerds play golf because it's it didn't
seem like he had to be very athletic. There was
(04:23):
no one that was very handsome or hot. You know,
they were all the footballers and the soccer players. Becker
could he deliver this time? Tiger Woods literally reinvented golf.
He was this hot, young, incredible superstar that came ripping through.
He went from being a very shy young boy. He
had a stutter, and he was so shy because of
(04:44):
the stutter. And the way he overcame the stutter was
every night he used to sit down with the family
dog and he used to talk to the dog until
the dog fell asleep, I know. And that's how he
got over his stutter. So Tiger was this full on
child prodigy. He was actually a freak of nature. He
featured in Golfers Digest. At five years old, he was
on Good Morning America, ESPN, CBS, NBC, ABC. Now these
(05:06):
are all American shows for those of you don't know, but
these are the big, big shows. Hey, Tiger, what's saying
I going to bring you ill? What do you wanted
to bring you? Hava? One hour and a two. He
got his first hole in one at age six, and
he started dominating the amateur competitions and winning golf scholarships
to Stanford after finishing high school.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
This poor guy is like a kid, and I'm already
waiting for his life to unravel because it's just so much.
It's so much pressure, Like no one person can carry
that much pressure for as long as he did well.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And this is the thing. He had all this pressure
on him to be the number one golfer in the world.
He had all this pressure of him to fix racism
and unite the world. And he used to talk about
this all the time. So imagine if you're a teenager
or child, and a teenager feeling that pressure on you
from two years old, that's all the poor kid had
ever known.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I mean, if there was ever a recipe for creating
someone who had like the most insane level of god complay,
because I feel like this is probably it. Sprinkle a
little bit on and there you go. Narcissism. Here we
are in the making, narcissist in the making. I want
to tell you about someone called Joe Groman.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Now, Joe is a really integral part of Tiger's life,
and he's an integral part of his story. So Joe
was a golf pro and I guess he acted like
a mentor to Tiger from a young age. He taught him,
he was a friend to him. So from thirteen basically
till he turned pro, I literally, you know, had him
all to myself at the Navy golf of course. So
he's a caddy for him, his junior stuff played in
practice with him every single day for years. But Joe
(06:34):
often talks about Tiger's dad. Tiger's Dad's name is Earl.
They all used to play golf together all the time,
and Joe often talks about the fact that there was
this level of insane It almost came across as taunting,
and I guess a level of bullying that Earl used
to inflict on Tiger on the golf course. And the
first time it happened, Tiger would be making a shot
(06:55):
and at the critical time his dad would start to
talk to him or would walk part like kick his
foot a little bit with jingle his keys a little bit.
Was like very rude and obnoxious, and Joe was like,
bro at the end, after a couple of times, Joe
was like, Bro, what are you doing? Like this is
really rude. We all know that we should be respectful
on the golf course and have silence when someone's taking
(07:15):
it apart and you're like literally literally belittling your child. Yeah,
but Earl had said, no, this is this is part
of his training. I'm teaching him to be able to
block out excess noise. So in a way I get
what he's saying because when you've seen when people playing golf,
there are huge crowds, there are people talking, there are
outside noises, distractions. So he was trying to set him
(07:37):
up so that he could block out everything and take
the shot. And it worked because Tiger his tactic was
to almost hypnotize himself. So when he was taking a
shot and you can see it happening, he glazes over
and it's like he's not even there anymore. It's like
he's a different person, glazes over, blocks everyone out, hypnotizes himself,
takes a shot, and he's a freak like he almost
never never misses. You just sort of like drop into
(07:58):
another zone and you block out everything.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
That's really helped me. It just seems like such a
toxic imbalance of power between a dad and a son.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I mean, in hindsight, it for sure was. There was
definitely an imbalance and it was a very strange relationship.
But what it allowed Tiger to do is and everyone
used to say, on the course, he was a different person.
He had like this double life. He was able to
compartmentalize what happened on the golf course to what happened outside,
and that is probably how he ended up having the
life he did.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Okay, So, was anything about Tiger Woods's childhood in quotation
marks normal?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I mean probably one thing. He did have a childhood sweetheart.
Her name was Dina, and she was his very first girlfriend. Now,
even in high school. Dina says that he's I mean,
we're talking about fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, like high school boys.
But he's already a freak at golf, and she says,
already people would swarm him. There were already so many fans.
(08:51):
But they had a really beautiful relationship until one day
out of the blue, even though they're in love, even
though nothing had gone wrong, she thought the relationship was fine,
she gets a letter from Tiger.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Wait, I'm sorry, before you get into what the letter said,
How the hell does the letters still exist?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Like?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Who has who keeps a hold of a letter from
when they're fifteen they get broken up with.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I have a sentimental box of stuff from when I
was a teenager.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Of breakup letters your ex boyfriend when you were fifteen.
You keep that.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Dina still has it. She we see Dina in the
Tiger documentary. We see her read out the note. So like,
I'm not even making this shit up. I don't know.
I mean, I feel like to die. I threw out
my box.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I had a box, and then during one bad breakup,
I threw out my entire box. Also had some very
important things like funeral notices from my grandparents, and so
it was horrible. I just was like, I'm done with
this part of my life.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Threw it all out. Well, this is really sad because
from all accounts, they were a young couple in love,
first love. There's nothing like your first love, and she
was blindsided. He started to obviously, you know he's a
horny teenager as well. You start to spend time with
your girlfriend like he thinks with his penis. He wants
to be around her, They want to be together. His
parents don't like that because because that doesn't go with
the idea of him becoming this prodigy, this golf prodigy.
(10:04):
So they make Tiger break up with Dina. So what's
the letter? All right, I'm going to read to you, Dina.
The reason for writing this letter is to inform you
that my parents and myself never want to talk or
hear from you again. Reflecting back over this relationship, I
feel used and manipulated by you and your family. I
(10:26):
hope the rest of your life runs well for you.
I know this is sudden and a surprise, but it is,
in my opinion, much warranted. Sincerely, Tiger, what them okay?
What an a personality type? Or his mum wrote that?
Year old kid is writing that.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Also, Like you're imagine getting your mum to write your
breakup letter for you.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Imagine being Imagine being in love, nothing's wrong, and then
you get a letter saying psych never want to see
you or speak to you again, you or your family.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I think the worst part of that is like being
accused of being manipulative, especially when the letter itself is
what is manipulative?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Like, there's obviously an ulterior motive, and that's because it's
taking away attention, energy and focus from this blooming golf career.
But that was the real that was the real catalyst
for this breakup.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah, and it comes It's so evident it comes from
his parents because we are then shown in this documentary.
We're then shown Tiger's dad, Earl, giving a speech and
talking about him in front of a whole crowd. This
is what his dad says. He will transcend this game
and bring the world a humanitarianism which has never been
known before, the world will be a better place to
(11:38):
live in by virtue of his existence and his presence.
I acknowledge only a small part in that, in that
I know that I was personally selected by God himself
to nurture this young man and bring him to the
point where he can make his contribution to humanity. It
is golf we're talking about, and he's a teenager and
(11:59):
you are not God, God talking about Like, that's.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
The thing that's so crazy, is like the fact that
this is the whole thing was put on such a pedestal.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
And I understand.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I know that there is like the media surrounding him,
like the money as well, the fame.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
All of that is like it creates this God complex.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
But is there any wonder why he couldn't keep a
normal relationship together anyone.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Dick in his pants? No, He's essentially been told his
whole life is God. Of course he thinks he can
go and do what he did. And speaking of pressure,
you have to imagine there was a lot of extra
external pressure, like racism. So this is a time where
you know, people of color weren't even allowed to play
on a lot of courses. And in nineteen ninety, there
is an interview with Transworld Sport and Tiger says, every
(12:46):
time I go to a major country club, you always
feel it, why are you here? You're not supposed to
be here. So as a really young kid, even though
he's turning into someone that's going to be the best
in his sport, he still wasn't and didn't feel welcome,
and he feels like he sticks out like a sore thumb. Well, yeah,
and I guess he did because this was very much
a male dominated, white sport. It's like the whitest of
(13:09):
white sports. Yeah. Well, the course that he actually won
his first Masters is called Augusta. They didn't even have
a black member until nineteen ninety. They didn't even have
a female member until twenty twelve. There are even stories
about Tiger not even being able to change in the
same change room as his friends and competitors, like he's
playing with them, he's out there, he's whipping their butt.
He can't even change in the same change room. Could
you imagine why couldn't he change in the He was
(13:29):
a person of color. That's just what it was. And
I think it's very easy for us to all forget that,
to have a level of ignorance and not realize exactly
what was going on.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
That is so outrageous, isn't it that that was Like,
I mean not even was it in our lifetime, Like,
it's so recent that this was happening.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So he left college at twenty years old to turn pro.
Pretty much, he signed with Nike and Titleists straight off
the bat, and they were the most lucrative sponsorship deals
in the history of golf. So think of this twenty
year old now that's already been told he's God, that
has just been given from nothing, all this money. All
of a sudden, he's got more money than you could
ever spend.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You have the pressure of the media frenzy surrounding it,
but then you also had the pressure of the monetary
aspect of it too.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
As the world looking in watching Tiger play golf, we
saw somebody that he was like a sociopath. This showed
no motion unless he won or did something that was really,
really brilliant. He would not laugh, smile, really talk to anyone.
But when he won a tournament, that was when it stopped.
He was like switched off, was happy, hugged his dad,
hugged his caddy wave to the audience. But whilst he
was playing, he was just like a robot. But we
(14:31):
saw him rise to number one faster than anyone else
in history. So he became number one in nineteen ninety seven,
and he remained number one longer than anyone else ever.
Had two hundred and sixty four weeks in a row.
So that's two hundred and sixty four weeks in this
little pressure cooker that was his life. There are cameras
always on him. There's this pressure to not lose your
(14:51):
number one spot. You need to stay there now you've
got there. The pressure of the world, the pressure of Nike,
the pressure of sponsors, discipline.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
When you're at this point and at the top of
your game, I don't really have time for love and relationships.
And we know that this is a podcast about the
love and the relationships that have blossomed and probably turned
into a shitfire. Where does aline come into this right now?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Funny you should ask. At the top of his game,
he's number one, he can't get better, probably couldn't get
more money. Well, actually he got a lot more money.
Top of the world, handsome, killing it. This is where
he meets Elin Nordegren. But let me tell you, Laura,
being the number one golfer in the world does not
make you cool. And Tiger Woods was not cool yet.
(15:34):
I mean that came later, but he was not cool.
So wait, let me guess. Did Tiger get his mum
to ask her out? Well, it's not that bad, but
actually it's it's pretty close. Elan, hi, Hi, listen, I'm
actually getting a little bit nervous. Nervous, nervous. Why I'm okay,
(15:54):
I'm okay, I'm okay, okay, you can do it. Okay.
I came over to actually ask you out. Oh you did? Yeah,
not for me on behalf of Tiger Woods. Sorry wait
what wait?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
So Tiger Woods, Yes, Tiger Woods, top of his game,
professional sports player, supposedly the coolest of the cool of
the cool. He got his friend to ask her out. Yes,
he couldn't even do it. Wait, just like he got
his mum to write the break up letter when he
was fifteen.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Ye're seeing a pattern here, people. He's not his own human.
He literally he was too nervous. But look in his defense,
if you guys haven't seen Elin and what she looks like,
she is so beautiful. I'd be scared in my pants too.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
This is the problem, okay, when you're not used to losing,
when you're not used to rejection, it makes it so
much scarier. Like he has never had to deal with
these sorts of things because he's always been a winner.
So putting yourself in a situation where you might not
be a winner is really really frightening.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I'm sorry though, But if I'm an adult, which I
am luckily, so I can talk about the fact. I mean,
that would be so crazy, brittanythetically, if I were an adult,
if somebody asked me out for their friend for a friend,
it is laughable. It would unless it's Sam Hewan or
one of my hall passes. I would be like, what
a childish immature, and I would think it was a joke.
(17:14):
I'd feel like I was sixteen years old and it
was like a prank. You know, when you send at
school and you're like, will you go out with me?
And you have two boxes. Yes, no, maybe you'd always tick,
maybe because you're like, I'll make him sweat it.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
It makes you a bit of a scaredy pants. It's a
little bit you're a little bit of a loser.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Imagine having one hundred million dollars and be like, make
can you go ask that girl out? Anyway? Where was
he hiding? Like in the corner, like is he steady tree?
And behind like the wet weather shed just in case
he's like holding up his golf club behind the golf
club volcano dying.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I mean, we can make fun of all this and
how it wouldn't really fly for us, but apparently it
worked for Elin.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Well actually no, I mean yes I did. Eventually she
thought it was ridiculous, so she said no, she wasn't interested,
and she was quite like a reserved and shy person.
And that life at this sporting life, the famous life,
the athlete life. She'd been around it a lot. She'd
been on that golf tour a lot with other golfers.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Now the reason why before anyone thinks she was just
making the rounds, she was a nanny for a golfer.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
She was a nanny for another golfer, for another couple.
So she had been around that area for a long
time and she wasn't. It didn't impress her, so she
said no. He kept hassling it. He kept calling the
house that she worked at, asking if he.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Started doing this or was it somebody else. Hey, I'm
just calling you on behalf of Tiger Woods again. He
would like to take you out for dinner.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
No, he started to just call the house and ask
her out. She eventually said yes. They started dating, and
they fell in love, and all of a sudden they
were seen everywhere together. She was very supportive. She was
always on the tours, she was always in the crowd,
and they were just this beautiful, like the most beautiful
couple of all time.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Imagine going from being like the nanny to some other
golfer to being Tiger Woods's plus one.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Totally with one hundred million dollars. I mean, I didn't
kill what anyone says, one hundred million dollars is a pricing. Yeah,
it makes you penny struck a little bit, doesn't it?
From that?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
This is holl Titched and hung Up, where we take
you through the most momentous love stories of our time,
and today it's Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren, the woman
who would become his wife, and then his ex wife Britt.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
What do we know about Elan? Now, we don't actually
hear a lot from Elan because she's a private person.
It's actually hard to dig up any information from her,
or quotes or anything like that. Her friend had come
forward and say, Elan told me that he didn't make
a great impression on her. At first. She had her
opinions about celebrities and they were not high, and she's
very shy, so the idea of joining that world was
(19:33):
not appealing to her, and when he asked her out,
I think she turned him down at first. She gradually
was convinced that she should give him a chance, and
so they did go out. Initially, her reaction was what
the hell was that? She thought it was so weird
and pathetic, So of course she said no, referring to
when he sent old mate over to ask her out.
(19:54):
So she definitely wasn't about that life. And I guess
a little bit of history about Elin is her family
were doing just fine on their own, so she was
really worried that she'd be perceived as like this gold digger.
But her mum was a very successful politician. Her twin
sister ended up being a lawyer. They didn't really want
for money, and they had a level of intelligence and
(20:18):
success that she thought was enough. She didn't think she
needed to go and chase money or somebody that was
so highly successful that would put a spotlight on her.
I think she was comfortable in the life that her
and her family had.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
There was a part of this where she resisted becoming
a wag, you know, because as you know, like if
you're going to date someone who's a professional sportsperson, your
dreams and ambitions come second to their career.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Well, she was at one of the top one hundred
universities in the world. She did child psychology. She's not
an idiot. She then on the side, she was a model,
Like what more could you want? Match smartin that wealthy
and that hole. I can't imagine, but I would love
to imagine. Okay, fast forward to two years of dating
Bliss and the world being obsessed with them. We find
ourselves in two thousand and three, and we find ourselves
(20:59):
in South Africa. So Tiger took Elind there to one
of the tournaments. Now, a little crisis happened here when
Tiger's team went into a bit of a meltdown. What happened, Well,
they lost him, They lost him in South Africa. They
lost Tiger and Elan, So they're all having his meltdown,
like what's happened? But he came back a couple of
hours later and Elin had a big, big, big fat
(21:19):
engagement ring on her finger. So they had disappeared. He
had proposed it, had their own little moment of privacy,
and they came back engaged. They're engaged. They get married
in two thousand and four with like a huge It
was a two million dollar affair because he rented out
an entire complex for a week, so they rented out
Sandy Lane Resort in Barbados. It was a golf course
of course, the whole thing, so it could be private.
(21:39):
It wasn't private. The paparazzi ended up coming in. It
was a whole big kerfuffle. They don't have a private
moment again in their life. But they get married, as
we are all shown, it's a very beautiful affair. In
two thousand and seven, they welcomed their first child. They
had a daughter called Sam and then their second child,
which was a son, Charlie in February of two thousand
and nine. So, now to the world, they're a really
beautiful family unit. They've got two beautiful kids, they got
(22:00):
all the money. They're beautiful.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
They're like absolute couple goals at the top of their game.
They are the pinnacle of what a perfect little family
looks like.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
This is a thing, isn't it. When you're at the peak,
you're at the very top. There is literally nowhere else
to go but down and down. He went on many women,
he went down on anywhere. I love it when I
nail it. So in two thousand and six, there, okay,
so he does his life does start to unravel. In
(22:30):
two thousand and six, he his dad, Earl dies. Now
they have both done so many interviews over the years,
stating both of them that they're each other's best friends,
that they're each other's entire world. And his dad wasn't
an angel. His dad and his mom had been married
their entire life, and from the outside it looked like
they had a beautiful family unit. His dad was chasing
tail NonStop on the golf course, and Tiger knew that.
(22:53):
Tiger saw that his dad had been cheating on his mum,
Tiger's caddy Joe was doing the same thing. So as
a young kid, the only two men that you have
in your life are cheating on their partners, are cheating
on their.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Wife and setting this precedent as though that is normal,
because like what is normal to him, his version of
normal in this world is so warped in comparison what
the rest of us experience totally, and his life, as
much as he's experienced so much, has been so incredibly
sheltered at the same time, like he's lived in this
little tiny bubble of a world and hasn't been exposed
to all the different things that a normal person would
(23:29):
be exposed to.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
So after his dad dies, Tiger decides to go and
train with the Navy Seals. Like, I mean the hallmark
of like the.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Will having a life criss is and going to join
the military.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Like you have all the money in the world, you're
a top athlete, you careen out of control and you're like,
I'm going to the Navy Seals to be put through
the ring, and they did. He one day on the
golf course tells his caddie, Steve Williams. He's like, that's it.
I'm quitting golf and joining the Navy Seals. So he
was going to give up his career, his entire career,
and go and join the Navy Seals. Like, this is
a man that wasn't thinking straight.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Okay, So at this point Tiger has joined the military
and the wheels are well and truly falling off the
bandwagon and he is in a full blown, swinging midlife crisis. Now,
I know that the story gets progressively worse from here,
But what happens next?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
All right? Two thousand and nine is when shit hits
the absolute fan. So we start by seeing the National
Inquirer publish a story front page that alleges that Woods
had an affair with New Yorker Rachel Yucatel. We learned
that Tiger had many mistresses, he cheated many many times,
but she, unfortunately for her, became the absolute face of cheating.
(24:35):
She was the pin up girl of the cheating scandal. Absolutely,
she was a babe. She was managing a nightclub that
he frequented a lot. Now, he went there with a
lot of other athletes, but she used to run the club,
so she her job was to make sure that when
these people came, when these athletes came, they had the
best night of their life. She obviously took that too
seriously because she went home with him and she's like,
(24:55):
I'm going to give you the best night of your life.
But that is how they met, and that is how
their love of started. And I called it a love
affair because it went on for a very long time,
and they said they were in love with each other.
She was utterly obsessed and in love with him.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
But I guess the thing with this is, obviously Rachel
knew the Tiger Woods was married and that he had
two kids and a lovely wife at home, but she
probably had no idea the depths of his deception as
well the fact that he had many mistresses and she
was also one of many. She probably felt like she
was the chosen one and she was the only person
that he had these extramarital affairs with.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Later on, when it did all unravel, a lot of
women came out thinking that they were in love and
they were the chosen one, as you just said. But
it unraveled in Australia. So the National Inquirer had a
bit of an inkling close to home. Yeah, well, they
had a bit of an inkling something was going on,
and he was playing a tournament here in Australia, and
he had called Rachel and said, I can't be there
without you, I can't win without you. They obviously had
(25:52):
this very strong bond, so he flew her to Australia
led the Tennaspy City just turned to learning about one Man,
Thank You, and that is where there were photographs of them.
That's where it was released, and that's where everything went down.
So where is Elin while all this is happening. Elin
was at home with the kids because she's got two
little kids, and obviously you trust your husband to be
able to go and do his sport on the other
side of the world without having an affair, without flying
(26:14):
in his mistress Publicly, they Tiger and Rachel, they say
they thought they got away with it because it was
like trashy mag No one's looking into it privately. Elan's
obviously clocked this and it hasn't felt right with it
because she does some investigating herself. And two days later
is when it all unravels. Two days later is Thanksgiving.
It's two thousand and nine, and Tiger ends up having
a very famous now single vehicle car accident outside his
(26:37):
mansion in Florida.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I remember that when this all imploded and the articles
all came out, and it was like just the most
insane unraveling which all sort of was like all centered
around this car crash.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, so he had a black escalade and he crashed
into a fire hydrant and then the fire hydrants sort
of like careened him into a tree. There are some
stories from the tabloids that say Elin had chased him
down the street she had found out he cheated and
she was like smashing his car with his golf club
and that that had caused the crash. But then they
(27:11):
had said, well, no, that's not true. She was actually
saving him and she had he had crashed and she
had to smash the window to help get him out.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Okay, there's a few parts of this that don't add up. Firstly,
and this is like where the detective work comes in.
If he had had a crash, why would you go
smashing the back window to drag someone who's one hundred
kilos out the back window?
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Well, plain that to me. I mean there were smashes everywhere.
But this is the thing, none of it really makes sense.
I mean, like I don't even want to speculate when
I'm going to I reckon she cracked it. I don't
think she was trying to save him. I think I
think she cracked it and she was mad as you
fucking would like, well, do you want to know why.
Let's rewind a couple of hours to how Rachel tells
us it went down, the reasons why she cracked it.
(27:54):
It's Thanksgiving. They're in their home now. After this, Enquirer
came out saying that Tiger had had this affair this
front page. This was only two days prior. So Tiger
had orchestrated a chat between Rachel and Elin, his mistress
and his wife, so that Rachel could explain that nothing
was going on, how they knew each other, why she
was in Australia. It was all this big story that
(28:15):
was ready. They had their chat for half an hour
and this is all being told by Rachel the mistress.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Mike. This is like a cover up, Like Tiger has
gone to the effort of trying to create a cover
up and get his mistress on board to deny that
it's ever happened.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Of course, and she does stand it, so she does.
They think they get away with it. It's late at night,
they're going to bed. Tiger takes sleeping tablets to go
to bed, so this is quite widely known. He doesn't
sleep without them. So he texts Rachel and says, thank you,
I'm taking my sleeping tablets now and I'm going to bed.
They say goodnight. Then Rachel gets a text message from
(28:50):
Tiger after his said goodnight that says when while I
see you again. Then a call from Tiger, so she
answers it and she says, Babe, I thought you were
going to bed, And there's a woman on the other
end that is Elin, that says I knew it was you.
For some reason, I do feel really sorry for Rachel
as well, because I feel like she got sucked into
a world that she didn't have any understanding of how
(29:12):
deep it was going to be. And you can tell
that she genuinely she knew she did the wrong thing,
but she genuinely loved him. But in that moment, I
just feel sorry for everyone. Like imagine being Elin calling
and hearing her voice on the other end, Hey, babe,
but you're going to say after you've just talked for
half an hour, and she's like, nothing's going wrong.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I just I also remember just how badly both of
these women were painted in the media, like how negative
and how nasty. Some of the commentary and the articles
were like Elin who Obviously it's speculation whether or she
did or she didn't smash this card to pieces, but
there is this article that was written in The Mirror,
and it paints her like she's absolutely hysterical, crazy, and
(29:53):
like you would be crazy if you had just discovered
text or just discovered that your whole life, everything that
you believe your partner wasn't true, and that they were
having an affair, and like, sure, maybe you wouldn't necessarily
grab a golf club and smash in his back windows,
but we don't even know if that actually happened. And
the Mirror wrote this article that was like step by
step detail around how she turned into a lunatic when
(30:15):
she found out this information, and it's all speculation. Looking
back in history, anytime any situation remotely has come forward
like this, it's always the women that are attacked in
the media. And at the end of the day, Tiger
was having the affair. He was making Rachel feel like
she was the one and something really special. For a
very long time, he was cheating on his wife. But
no one targeted Tiger quite like they targeted the two
(30:36):
women in this story, which is really sad to see.
I mean, he did have a very spectacular fall from
grace as much as the women got embroad. It's like,
you know, Rachel became the temptress and Elian became the
hysterical wife. Like there was like the caricatures that were
painted of both of them. Tiger just became a bit pathetic.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
After it all. Well, this is when the story came out,
so everyone knew that he'd had an affair, and this
is when everyone else came out of the woodwork. So
there was another published article. US Weekly published it. A
woman named Jamie Grubbs. She was a cocktail waitress. She
came forward and was like, yo, I've had a thirty
one month affair with Tiger too. So she had text
messages and voicemails and like it started to it started
(31:15):
to be like, you can't hire this anymore. You have
to accept, you have to own it, because there's no running.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
These women would have been coming out because they would
have felt betrayed, like so many of them would have
felt like, especially if you've had a thirty one month
affair with someone Tiger would have made three years. But
Tiger would have made her feel like she was the
only one. And I'm sure he was saying, oh, yeah,
my marriage with Elen, like you know, I can't leave.
We've got two kids, it's on the rocks. It's so terrible.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Blah blah blah blahla.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Poor Aleen thinks that like everything is great, but like
he would have been saying those lies to each one
of his mistresses, So when it all unfolded and came out,
they would have been angry because they would have felt
lied to.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
And that's why they've also gone to the media. The
people that came out after that, like he very much diversified.
There was a porn star, a pancake house waitress, a
Las Vegas club promoter. Yeah, he didn't stay in one lane.
He was like a bit of years had once. Yeah,
he's like you get a Tiger, and you get a Tiger.
He just like gave himself out like thought he was Oprah.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
But isn't this interesting going back to this whole like
and what we spoke about at the very beginning, how
he was so great at compartmentalizing, how he had one
life that was like his public media personal family life
that everyone thought he was just the most incredible, like
family man, he was so successful. And then on the
flip side, he had this, he had this like very
(32:31):
dark underbelly that all became exposed.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
I want to know how he met the pancake house waitress.
I didn't think an athlete had being in pancake probably
on a Saturday morning after a few once. Well, anyway,
one hundred plus women come forward apparently to say that
they had had an affair, and I think they just
stopped counting at that. I think they get to one
hundred and they're eight. Let's just just do one hundred plus,
like just the plus in at the end. Well, in
twenty ten, he apologizes on national television in front of
(32:55):
family and friends, and he announces that he is going
to be leaving golf for a little while to focus
and try and save his marriage, which spoiler doesn't work. Actually,
can we get some sob story music here? Someone, if
there's anyone around that could just pop that in.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I have Tiger's apology right here or handy on final
I wonder if he got his mum to write this one.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Probably yeah, I know my actions were wrong, but I
convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply. I never thought
about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself.
I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple
should live by. I thought I could get away with
whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked
hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the
(33:35):
temptations around me. I felt I was entitled thanks to
money and fame. I didn't have to go far to
find them. I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't
get to play by different rules. It's a good apology,
it's he owned it, for sure, but the fact that
he's like literally saying, yeah, I felt like I was god.
I felt like I deserved it. I worked so hard
(33:56):
I get to do whatever I want, And like, for sure,
you probably did do it before you get married, But
this is my thing. I'm like, you could have. You
could have played around as much as you wanted before
you got married. But I guess you know.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
And this is absolutely not making excuses for the behavior.
But I think with the context around how he was raised,
with the context around how and what he was exposed
to from his own parents, as in from his dad
and from the person who was his mentor. I just
think that, like, his world is a world that we
can't relate to, and his world and what he was
(34:29):
exposed to is so hugely and vastly different that it
also makes you makes you look at the circumstances and
go Not that I condone it, but I understand why
he cheated and why he acted the way he acted
because the guy had some like very very flawed upbringings,
and he had some hugely flawed ideal ideologies around relationships.
He thought they didn't the rules don't apply to him
(34:50):
because they've never applied to him.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Yeah, and the real person that was heard here obviously
is Elin. She'd stood by her husband for a long time,
but it was what happened to her in the aftermath.
And Tiger's friends come out to say, like he could compartmentalize,
like we spoke about earlier, this hypnotizing on the course,
he could compuntmentalize his life like no one else could,
so he had a double life. Elin had only just
found this out, so she thought the Tiger she got
(35:14):
was this incredible athlete, an incredibly loving husband, an amazing father,
that was just so obsessed with his kids, and she
thought that's what it was, and she got Jekyll and Hyde.
There was a party animal that went to Vegas constantly
with other athletes, up to one hundred and twenty women.
Is reported that he cheated on her with was partying,
was doing cocktails of drugs, like literally two different people.
(35:34):
And she's only just finding this out. And then on
top of that, what happened to her after the harassment
that she received from the media and the paparazzi, and
this footage of her trying to walk down the street
with her kids and journalists and paparazzi are yelling out
to her, have you had an STD check yet? Have
you had an STND check yet? But just the audacity
of the abuse that she received after she was already
(35:55):
going through a heartbreak, I just can't even fathom.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
And it's also the shaming, you know, it's like she
had no knowledge and she had no input in this,
in his wrongdoing, but it's the shaming of her. And
like like we said earlier, this like making her look
like she was hysterical, making her look like she was
unhinged because of the separation and because of what he'd done,
and it's so unfair to judge her actions based on
(36:18):
his actions and her reaction based on his actions.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Well, look, if anything is going to make it better,
it's the approximate one hundred million dollars I repeat, one
hundred million dollars that she got in the divorce settlement.
But at the end of the day, how much is
enough to lose your entire family? Like, yes, she got
one hundred million dollars, but everything she knew and loved
completely fell apart, and she lost what she thought was
(36:43):
her happy ever after.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
I wonder, like, I mean, that would play on your
mind so much. You would never be able as much
as he's meant to be this king of compartmentalizing, you
would never be able. I don't think anybody could compartmentalize
those two worlds.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Once they'd unraveled, there was a pretty tumultuous time for Tiger.
He was very, very up and down. They ended up,
and now Elan says they they ended up becoming friends.
They're quite close again, they're not together. Elan has now
had another baby with this really really like super hot,
definitely my type hot footballer. I'm married football and the Yeah,
(37:17):
they've had a little baby, and she's she's really happy,
and she says that they do have a really good
relationship now because at the end of the day, she's like,
was he a good husband to me? No, he did
the wrong thing, but he's a very good father. So
they co parent very very well.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
It takes such an incredibly strong woman to be to
be betrayed the way that she was betrayed and then
to go on and amicably and in a friendly, kind
way co parent with that other person, because you would
they'd be a part of you that would be like,
I don't ever want someone like you around my children.
I don't want you as a role model around my children.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
But not only did Elin find her happiness, Tiger has
been in a relationship for around three years now and
he's very very happy, and they're all very happy in
terms of interacting together. Elan is really happy with Tiger's
new partner. Tiger's kids really loved Tiger's new partner. So
I feel like whilst it was a pretty hectic journey,
they all got there in the end, so we all
(38:12):
love to see a happy ending. So that is a
story of Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren and the pancake waitress,
the infidelity, the car crashes like that is the story,
the tumultuous story that at the end has a happy ending.
But I hope you learned something. I'm Britt and I'm
Laura and this is Hooked, Hitched and Hung Up, a
(38:35):
podcast from iHeart Podcast Australia, dead Set Studios and a
Kiss Network.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Make sure you're follow in your podcast at because there
are some really interesting relationship stories coming your way soon.
And if you haven't listened to the episode before, there's
a go back and catch up because your girls did
some great research here and we are talking about Monica
Lewinsky and the President of the United States and that
gap dress that you know should have been put in
a bin. Men Mountain, Jason Moer and how him married
(39:00):
his childhood TV crash.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
See you next time for some more breakups and makeups
and sex and romance.
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