Tiger Woods Has A History Of Having His Girlfriends Sign NDAs
Signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) probably isn't the first thing you think of when you start dating someone new. But, well, if you're thinking of dating Tiger Woods, you're probably going to need to.
The star has had quite the love life in the public eye, with plenty of his romantic dalliances hitting the headlines over the years. Of course, Woods was famously married to the mother of his two children, Elin Nordegren, from 2004 until 2010, during which time he admitted to a number of affairs. That resulted in a total media firestorm, and the pro golfer apologized very publicly for his actions during a 2010 press conference. "I knew 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," he shared. "I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me," he said, before listing all the people his many affairs had hurt, including his family and his many fans.
Nordegren has very much moved on from their romance though and so has Woods, with the latter publicly getting into a few relationships in the wake of his divorce — and it looks like signing NDAs becoming a bit of a running theme with the ladies in his life.
Rachel Uchitel reportedly got more than $5 million for signing an NDA
Tiger Woods has been accused of making his girlfriends sign NDAs multiple times, with one of the most famous cases being back in 2009 when Rachel Uchitel claimed she signed on the dotted line of a 30-page document given to her by Woods' team. The document reportedly stopped her from being able to speak out about the golfer, who she had a relationship with during his marriage to Elin Nordegren. "His lawyers are saying, 'We want all your text messages and here's the price' and you're like 'screw you' and you move into deal-maker mode and all of a sudden, it's the rest of your life," she told The New York Times in 2021, with the outlet claiming she was given $5 million and another $1 million each year for three years for signing the NDA. But it sounds like Uchitel was tired of being silenced. "I've had it with NDAs," she said.
But Uchitel is hardly the only woman to have gotten close to Woods who's thought to have been asked to sign such papers. One year later, it was reported that a woman by the name of Emma Rotherham was alleged to have received hundreds of thousands of dollars when she allegedly signed a confidentiality agreement with Woods. It was alleged she signed the papers in exchange for being quiet about what purportedly went on between them during Woods' marriage, according to Daily Mail.
Tiger Woods also allegedly asked for NDAs from other ex-girlfriends
In 2018, TMZ Sports claimed Tiger Woods' former girlfriend Kristin Smith also signed an NDA as a result of her relationship with him, though it wasn't known if she ever actually put her signature on the line. The outlet claimed though that Smith felt the NDA was not enforceable, and she also alleged she was essentially being blackmailed into signing it. But that's still not all when it comes to Woods and his oh-so-many NDAs.
More recently, Woods' ex-girlfriend Erica Herman headed to court over the NDA she signed in 2017 as a result of her relationship with Woods. She filed court documents in March asking that it not be enforced due to the Speak Out Act. Herman didn't accuse Woods of sexual assault, though she did claim she had been tricked into leaving their house and was then not allowed back into it after they split. Herman alleged she had supposedly made an oral agreement with Woods that would allow her to stay at the property for a set amount of time in the case of a split, but claimed that was not honored. Via his lawyers, Woods denied that was the case. "Mr. Woods never negotiated an oral tenancy agreement with Ms. Herman. Nor was there ever a written tenancy agreement between Mr. Woods or the Trust," his lawyer hit back in a statement.
Tiger Woods' lawyers shared parts of his NDA with Erica Herman
Though NDAs are all about privacy, Erica Herman's didn't exactly stay that way. In March 2023, Tiger Woods' lawyers shared a redacted copy of the paperwork in court filings after the former couple continued to fight it out in court. The document was heavily redacted, but it highlighted the stipulation that any disputes between Herman and Woods had to be handled in a private manner, according to Insider.
Woods' team continued to call out Herman amid her lawsuit, asking the court not to grant her the request to void the 2017 NDA. According to TMZ Sports, the golfer hit back at his ex in court documents, stating, "Ms. Herman's position is utterly meritless." Woods' team even went as far as to add, "It is a transparent abuse of the judicial process that undermines the purpose of the federal statute and those whom the statute seeks to protect."
As for what actually went wrong between the two who once seemed so strong, Us Weekly claimed the former couple developed big differences that led to them going their separate ways after around five years together. "Erica thought Tiger was never at home, and Tiger thought Erica was spending too much and living too lavish of a lifestyle," a source told the outlet, though neither appears to have spoken publicly about their split.