Tiger Woods will begin his FedEx Cup playoff run this week with a renewed buzz over his private life and the end of his marriage.
The buzz comes with news that his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, is speaking out for the first time publicly in a People magazine story due to hit the newsstands on Friday.
The couple’s divorce became official Monday. Woods is scheduled to tee it up Thursday at The Barclays, the first of four FedEx Cup playoff events.
Woods will begin his playoff run knowing that while much of the golfing public has forgiven him, they will now know that his former wife still has not, but she’s working on it.
“I know I will have to come to forgiveness and acceptance of what has happened for me to go on and be happy in the future,” Nordegren told People. “And I know I will get there eventually.”
Nordegren shares the pain she felt with her husband’s infidelities making worldwide news. She shared how she didn’t just lose sleep and weight over it. She also lost hair.
“I have been through the stages of disbelief and shock, to anger and ultimately grief over the loss of the family I so badly wanted for my children,’ she told the magazine.
‘I felt stupid as more things were revealed -- how could I not have known anything? The word ‘betrayal’ isn’t strong enough. I felt embarrassed for having been so deceived. I felt betrayed by many people around me,’ she said.
Nordegren said she didn’t know her husband was cheating on her.
‘I never suspected, not a one,” she said. “For the last 3½ years, when all this was going on, I was home a lot more with pregnancies, then the children and my school.”
Despite the difficulities, Nordegren said the couple made an effort to remain together.
‘Initially, I thought we had a chance, and we tried really hard,’ she said.
At 30, and studying toward a degree in psychology, she said she’s doing just fine.
“I also feel stronger than I ever have,” she said. “I have confidence in my beliefs, my decisions and myself.’
Nordegren told People that she never hit her husband, and that she avoided watching TV during the worst of the ordeal, but she admitted that when she did watch, she found some of the parodies of her on Saturday Night Live, South Park and other shows “hysterical,” though inaccurate.
‘There was never any violence inside or outside our home,’ she said. ‘The speculation that I would have used a golf club to hit him is just truly ridiculous. Tiger left the house that night, and after a while when he didn’t return, I got worried and decided to look for him. That’s when I found him in the car. I did everything I could to get him out of the locked car. To think anything else is absolutely wrong.’
Nordegren wished Woods “all the best” as an athlete and a person.
“I know he is going to go down as the best golfer that ever lived, and rightfully so. I feel privileged to have witnessed a part of his golfing career.’
