Ex-Girlfriend: Tiger Woods Used Lawyer to Break up With Me

A $30-million authorized battle between Tiger Woods and his ex-girlfriend has escalated, with Erica Herman accusing the golf celebrity of starting their sexual relationship when she was his worker and threatening to fireside her if she did not signal a nondisclosure settlement she now needs voided.

Herman, in courtroom paperwork filed late Friday, additionally accused Woods of getting his lawyer break up along with her at an airport in October after falsely telling her they have been happening a weekend journey. The lawyer then evicted her from Woods’ $54 million mansion north of Palm Seaside.

The paperwork have been filed upfront of a scheduled Tuesday listening to the place Woods’ attorneys are anticipated to ask Circuit Decide Elizabeth Metzger to halt Herman’s lawsuit in opposition to their billionaire shopper. They are saying the previous couple’s nondisclosure settlement requires all disputes be settled privately by an arbitrator, not in courtroom.

Herman, who managed Woods’ Palm Seaside County restaurant earlier than and in the course of the first years of their romantic relationship, argues that the nondisclosure settlement is unenforceable underneath a brand new federal legislation that claims such contracts could be voided when sexual abuse or sexual harassment occurred. Her legal professional, Benjamin Hodas, contends that Woods’ alleged menace to fireside her if she did not signal the contract was harassment.

“A boss imposing totally different work situations on his worker due to their sexual relationship is sexual harassment,” Hodas stated.

Herman, 39, is individually suing the belief that owns Woods’ mansion for $30 million, saying he verbally promised in 2017 that she may dwell there for no less than 11 years, however kicked her out after 5.

Woods’ legal professional, J.B. Murray, denies that the 47-year-old golfer ever sexually assaulted or harassed Herman, calling her accusations in courtroom paperwork, “completely meritless.”

Neither Hodas nor Murray responded to emails and telephone calls in search of remark.

It’s unknown if Woods will attend Tuesday’s listening to.

In Herman’s lawsuit in opposition to Woods, she needs Decide Metzger to both void the nondisclosure settlement or no less than give her steerage about what she will say publicly. For instance, can she focus on occasions that occurred earlier than their settlement or after their breakup? What about info she discovered about Woods from others? She can be arguing that the contract covers solely her work relationship with Woods, not their private issues.

In her illegal eviction lawsuit in opposition to the belief, she is basing her $30 million declare on how a lot it could value to hire a property like Woods’ mansion for the six years of residence she was allegedly denied.

When Hodas filed her lawsuit in opposition to the belief in October, he checked a field on a standardized kind saying the case didn’t contain sexual abuse. In Herman’s March lawsuit in opposition to Woods, Hodas checked the field saying that case does contain abuse. Hodas has not defined the obvious discrepancy.

Earlier than they dated, Woods employed Herman in 2014 to assist develop after which function the golfer’s The Woods sports activities bar and restaurant in close by Jupiter — however they don’t agree when their romantic relationship and cohabitation started.

Herman says in her courtroom filings that their romantic relationship started in 2015 and that in late 2016 she moved into Woods’ practically 30,000-square-foot (2,800-square-meter) mansion within the ritzy Hobe Sound neighborhood.

Woods, in his courtroom paperwork, says their romantic relationship started in 2017, shortly earlier than she moved in with him that August — in regards to the time the nondisclosure settlement was signed. In March 2017, Woods had positioned the mansion into the Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Belief, an entity he created that has solely himself and his two youngsters as beneficiaries. Forbes Journal estimates Woods’ internet price at $1.1 billion.

They have been first seen publicly as a pair on the Presidents Cup in late September 2017, and Herman had been a gradual presence on the bigger tournaments and occasions, such because the 2019 Masters, his final win. She was additionally with Woods on the White Home in 2018 when then-President Donald Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Herman says Woods pressured her to give up her job managing his restaurant in 2020, saying he wished her to spend extra time taking good care of him and his youngsters.

Herman says Woods evicted her by “trickery.” She says Woods instructed her they have been happening a weekend journey to the Bahamas, so she packed a small bag and he drove her to the airport, the place they parked close to a non-public airplane.

However as an alternative of boarding, Woods instructed Herman to speak to his lawyer and left, she says.

“Out of the blue,” the lawyer instructed her the connection was over and that she was being evicted, she says. She says she refused to signal one other nondisclosure settlement the lawyer tried to power upon her.

When Woods’ legal professionals returned her private belongings, they saved $40,000 in money, “making scurrilous and defamatory allegations” about how she obtained it, she alleges.

Woods and his former spouse, Elin Nordegren, divorced in 2010, some 9 months after he was caught in a collection of extramarital affairs that value him blue-chip company sponsors and tarnished a picture that had been largely impeccable.

Since then, he has had a collection of accidents and surgical procedures, together with fusion surgical procedure on his decrease again in 2017 and shattered bones in his proper leg from a February 2021 crash in Los Angeles when he drove his SUV off a coastal street whereas driving about 85 mph (137 kph).

Woods made the cut on the current Masters however withdrew in the course of the third spherical due to foot ache. He underwent ankle surgery final month, and it’s unknown when he’ll compete subsequent.

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