Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Tiger a great father, says Elin
LOS ANGELES: The ex-wife of Tiger Woods said she had a good relationship with the golfer and called him a “great father” in her first media comments on their relationship since their marriage was dissolved four years ago after his serial cheating.
Elin Nordegren, 34, told People magazine in an interview published on Wednesday that she had put Woods’s publicised affairs in the past.
“I have moved on, and I am in a good place,” Swedish-born Nordegren said. “My relationship with Tiger is centred around our children, and we are doing really good, we really are, and I am so happy that is the case. He is a great father.”
Woods, 38, and Nordegren divorced in 2010, less than a year after his string of at least a dozen affairs came to light.
The revelations tarnished the image of Woods, one of the world’s richest and most popular athletes, costing him tens of millions of dollars in endorsements at the time and providing fodder for tabloids.
The couple has two children – daughter Sam, 6, and son Charlie, 5 – and live near each other in Florida. Nordegren, a former model and nanny, married Woods in 2003 and her divorce settlement with Woods was estimated at $100 million.
“In the beginning, you tamp down the animosity for the kids’ sake,” said Nordegren.
“I’m not going to deny that I went through the wringer. But I don’t think I doubted we’d end up here,” she said.
“That was always my dream, that the kids can have two loving parents that show respect for each other. And I feel that’s what they have.”
Woods, a 14- time major champion winner, is now in a relationship with Olympic alpine skier Lindsey Vonn. – Reuters