Ex-girlfriend says Tiger Woods used lawyer to break up with her

Tiger Woods’ ex-girlfriend said in an email in August 2017 that her only concern about signing the nondisclosure agreement was losing her job at Woods’ restaurant if the relationship ended and having future control over the business.

“I have no problem with what is in the document because I will not make it public or use anything I know to hurt him or the children,” Erica Herman wrote in an email to Tiger Woods Ventures CFO.

“But with my life now in his hands, I want to be in control of my future in the business. If something happens 5-10 years down the road, I don’t want to be in my 40s and unemployed.”

The email exchange was part of a document filed Sunday afternoon ahead of Tuesday’s hearing. Woods’ attorney is expected to ask Circuit Judge Elizabeth Metzger to drop Herman’s lawsuit against his billionaire client. He said the couple’s NDA required all disputes to be resolved privately by an arbitrator, not in court.

Herman has filed a lawsuit against Woods, accusing golf’s biggest star of starting a sexual relationship while he was an employee and threatening to fire him if he doesn’t sign an NDA that he now wants to revoke.

His email to Chris Hubman, CFO of Woods’ company, was sent on August 7, 2017.

“In my mind, your work at The Woods Jupiter and your personal relationship with TW are two separate things,” Hubman wrote back the next day. “I don’t think the end of one automatically leads to the other… although I admit it can be complicated. It will mostly depend on the terms, conditions or reasons for the end of the relationship.

He signed the NDA on August 9, 2017, according to documents.

Herman, in court documents filed last Friday, also accused Woods’ lawyer of breaking up with him at the airport last October after lying to him that they were going on a weekend trip to the Bahamas. She said the lawyer later kicked her out of Woods’ $54 million mansion north of Palm Beach and tried to get her to sign another NDA, which she refused.

Herman, who managed the Woods’ Palm Beach County restaurant before and during the first year of their romantic relationship, argues the NDA is unenforceable under a new federal law that says such contracts can be voided when sexual abuse or sexual harassment occurs. His attorney, Benjamin Hodas, argued that Woods’ threat to fire him if he did not sign the contract constituted harassment.

“A boss imposing different work conditions on employees because of sexual relations is sexual harassment,” said Hodas.

Herman, 39, is separately suing the trust that owns the Woods mansion for $30 million, saying he verbally promised in 2017 he could live there for at least 11 years, but was evicted after five years.

Woods’ attorney, JB Murray, has denied that Woods, 47, ever sexually assaulted or harassed Herman, calling the allegations in court documents “without merit.”

Neither Hodas nor Murray responded to emails and phone calls seeking comment.

Ask the judge for directions

It is not known if Woods will attend Tuesday’s hearing. He underwent ankle surgery last month following a car accident in February 2021 in Los Angeles and is likely to miss the remainder of this year’s major championships.

In Herman’s lawsuit against Woods, he wants Judge Metzger to revoke the NDA or at least give him guidance on what he can say publicly. For example, can they discuss what happened before the agreement or after the breakup? What about the information he learned about Woods from others? He also denied the contract only covered his working relationship with Woods, not personal matters.

In the wrongful eviction suit against the trust, he made a $30 million claim for the cost of renting properties like Woods’ mansion during the six years the home was allegedly denied him.

Herman said in her court filings that the romantic relationship began in 2015 and in late 2016 she moved into the Woods’ almost 30,000 square feet (2,800 square meters) mansion in the ritzy Hobe Sound community.

Woods, in court documents, said the romantic relationship began in 2017, shortly before he moved in with her in August — about the time the NDA was signed. In March 2017, Woods deeded the mansion to the Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Trust, an entity created with only him and his two children as beneficiaries.

Forbes magazine estimates that Woods is worth $1.1 billion.

They were first seen publicly as a couple at the Presidents Cup in late September 2017, and Herman has remained at bigger tournaments and events, such as the 2019 Masters. He was also with Woods at the White House in 2019 when President Donald Trump presented him with the Medal of Freedom President.

Expelled through a trick?

Herman said Woods forced her to quit her job managing the restaurant in 2020, saying she wanted him to spend more time taking care of her and their children.

In another email, Herman wrote on February 17, 2020, that he had spoken with Woods and “we knew it would be best if I eliminated the day-to-day operations of the restaurant.”

“Our life has evolved and after 4 years I know that I have spread[o] thin and I don’t have the time or desire to dedicate it to the restaurant,” Herman wrote to Hubman.

When Woods’ attorney returned his personal belongings, he kept $40,000 in cash, “making scurrilous and defamatory allegations” about how he got it, he said.

Woods and his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, divorced in 2010, about nine months after he was caught in a series of extramarital affairs that cost him blue-chip corporate sponsors and tarnished the image that had been generally perfect.