Tiger Woods’s ex-wife Elin Nordegren speaks…
…and she divulges that:
…[She] was as surprised as most of the rest of the world that the persona Woods put forth ”“ dedicated competitor, family man ”“ was a carefully constructed sham. “I’m so embarassed that I never suspected [his affairs] ”“ not a one,” she said.
My guess is that a lot of people might read that and say, “What a dummy. Of course she should have known! There are always clues!”
And to them I respond, “No. She. Shouldn’t. No. There. Aren’t.”
Sometimes there are clues, and spouses close their eyes to the evidence before them because they don’t want to face it. But sometimes cheaters are con-artist masters at the game. Sometimes they cover their tracks in such a way that, even if their spouse were Sherlock Holmes, suspicion would not be raised (okay; maybe Sherlock would figure it out, but nobody else).
Tiger may have been just this variety of cheat.
But it seems he wasnt that type of guy. He seems like a guy who wouldnt be able to keep his hands off any female or disguise his interest in them.
I find myself mildly embarrassed commenting on this subject but–remember that her husband wasn’t going on a regular schedule and wasn’t home regularly. He wasn’t going to work every morning, coming home every evening, and usually around on the weekends. So a change in routine, such as a sudden spate of late evenings claimed at the office or suddenly disappearing Sunday afternoons, wouldn’t have served to put her on notice of some irregularity.
She trusted him, apparently. Sad to realize that he didn’t deserve it. I am not much interested in golf, mostly a baseball fan, and thank goodness the heroes of the diamond wouldn’t stoop to…well, Harold Rosenthal once commented that “the incidence of immorality is higher among itinerant workers.”
Just sad, but believable.
Unlike most husbands, he was away on business a lot and he had a friend/caddy to take care of all the mistress’ arrangements, as well as an army of enablers. When you commit to a marriage, you’ve decided to trust your spouse – the default should not be ‘trust but verify’.
I don’t know – from what I’ve read on other sites, Tiger had dozens and dozens of “affairs,” including a 17-year old neighbor. His behavior sounds compulsive. I’d be really surprised if Elin had no idea. Maybe not. But it seems perfectly plausible to me that this was one of those rich people/celebrity pairings that had some love and affection, but also plenty of pecuniary motivation: she gets a huge fortune and he gets a beautiful photogenic bride and homelife. I would not be surprised if she looked the other way as long as he was reasonably discreet.
It seems to me this happens fairly often amongst the rich and powerful, c.f., Kennedys, Clintons.
I still would like to know exactly what did happen with that golf club, though.
Babe Ruth was a notorious womanizer. Although he didn’t cheat on a wife, at least.
Some cheaters act as though they secretly want to be caught, don’t they? They leave careless clues around… possibly because they feel guilty about what they’re doing. But I don’t think Tiger was that sort.
Rather, I think he had come to believe in his own legend, and truly believed that the rules didn’t apply to him. Classic Greek hubris, in other words.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
I just hope he isn’t the only celebrity…
1) of mixed ethnic background,
2) who spends most of his time on the golf course, and
3) shows classic hubris
to get his just deserts.
Although the circumstances are vastly different, the parallel between Tiger Woods and O.J. Simpson is unmistakable.
Both were superstars in their sport, but more than that were all-American, family men, the “all round good guy” that everyone loved.
What happened to both wasn’t some small “oh so he isn’t perfect” it was a world-class crash. We didn’t learn some small imperfection, we learned that each was a world-class whacko.
If neither Woods nor Simpson had existed, and a novelist came up with the stories of each, the manuscript would be rejected as implausible.
I’m hoping the public conversation will finally begin to wane on this overly long public conversation, but what the heck! Might as well throw my two cents in.
My thinking has always been more along the lines of Judith’s. It doesn’t take much more than minimal observation to note that Tiger’s behavior was compulsive. Nor does one need to be a rocket scientist to note that he was neither very discerning with regard to his taste in partners nor very discreet. He appears to have picked up women at icountless dive bars, cocktail lounges, restaurants all over the place. (By the way, not exactly fair to malign his caddy as his pimp just because the man has been in his employ, carried his golf clubs for many years.)
As for Elin, don’t know her, wish her the best, but this much-praised “class act” doesn’t seem all that classy to me. She was a nanny who hit the lotto when she married Tiger (and hey, nothing wrong with that). But like Judith, I tend to think there was more than true love and finding one’s soul mate involved — on both sides.
Also, no one ever really knows what takes place inside a relationship. All we know is that a good one involves two people. While I don’t know condone or approve of Tiger’s behavior, I’ve been rather surprised to watch the near universal assumption that everything was completely and solely on Tiger, period. May have been. Perhaps not. But no matter how shocked, embarrassed, humiliated, etc. Elin might have been (assuming she was) any woman (any anyone, for that matter) who follows another person getting into a moving vehicle (a rather large one at that) and picks up a golf club to smash out the windows while it’s in motion is pretty high octane, to say the least. (But then, maybe she was really saving him thinking he was severely injured already….)
There is also the fact that though they owned a number of homes, it was common knowledge that the Woods’ primary residence was the one in Florida. However, when Elin initially filed for divorce, she engaged one of the biggest, baddest celebrity divorce attorneys and filed in California (using their CA home address) in a bid to get a much bigger payoff. Says something to me.
Finally, the current splashy revelation telling “her” story in her “one and only” interview (in People magazine (what a surprise!) ) accomplishes what? Financial deal with Tiger done. Divorce is done. The world tried Tiger, found him guilty (which he was) and has defended her honor for the last year and a half. And she ended up with hundreds of millions after 4 years of marriage. And she’s 30 and exquisite, and hopefully healing and looking forward. Except for the story…which obviously, looks backwards.
Hmmm….People Magazine — gee, wonder what she got for this exclusive tell-all? She doesn’t have enough? But then, maybe she’d donating it all to charity? Ya think?
By the way, Tom —
“parallel between Tiger Woods and O.J. Simpson is unmistakable.”
Both outstanding athletes. Check. Tiger’s ethnically part African-American. O.J. is African-American. Both made a lot of money. (though Tiger eclipses O.J. in that area) But O.K. Check. Both ostensibly devoted husbands, family men. Check.
And how many other sports stars fall into all the above categories? Lots. And lots. And lots.
But cheating (alot). (Tiger’s the only part African-American celebrity sports star family man who cheated? (Alot).
And cold-blooded murder just a few hundred feet from the sleeping children?
Uhhhh…. Not much of a parallel to me…..
Poor dumb blonde, dumb like a fox, has “been through hell” and a significant piece of a billion bucks, what melodrama…
I suspect Woods is a beta male and I suspect Betas are better at evading and hiding details from even their closest friends and spouses.
Just looking at the body language in this photo seems to offer confirmation.
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0b5U9zm06g4av/610x.jpg
Thankfully for Tiger his skin is of a hue where this won’t rate the coverage it would if he were, uh, more melanin deficient. While much was made of him not proclaiming that fifty percent of his heritage, he is now and forever okay in the eyes of millions of America’s inveterate philanderers.
reference Will’s comment, now I’m beginning to wonder if we’re a nation of racists.
It’s a tad premature. Will’s comment suggest that the racism, if any, is found with a liberal media that holds people of color to a lower standard.
Most of the serial cheaters I know of in RL have jobs that cover for them– long haul truckers, buisnessmen that travel a lot– and some have been cheating the whole marriage, so there isn’t a change TO notice.
(one dear family friend later found out that, on the trip between wedding and honeymoon cruise, her husband had cheated)
*csimon:
She filed in CA (no doubt, on advice of her lawyers) , to get the max payoff – and you assume she’s less then ethical?
She’d done what millions of wives who’d been cheated on dream of doing: to hurt the person who hurt them in the most painful spot – their wallet.
As another famous divorcee said – “don’t get mad, get everything”.
Bravo.