Tiger Woods’s ex‑girlfriend has filed a lawsuit seeking to be released from a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) she says the golf superstar made her sign at the start of their relationship in 2017, court filings showed Wednesday. Erica Herman, who lived with the 15‑time major winner at his Florida mansion until late 2022, filed the request in the Circuit Court of the 19th Judicial Circuit in Martin County, Florida.
According to court records seen by AFP, Herman’s attorneys argue that the NDA she was required to sign is “invalid and unenforceable” under U.S. federal legislation known as the Speak Out Act. The law, which became effective last year in the wake of the MeToo movement, makes nondisclosure agreements unenforceable in cases involving sexual assault and harassment. Herman’s filings do not provide further details, and there are no specific allegations against Woods. However, when asked on the court form “Does this case involve allegations of sexual abuse?” Herman’s attorneys checked “Yes.”
Herman’s bid to waive the NDA marks an escalation of a legal dispute with Woods that began last October but has received little coverage in U.S. media. In additional filings also seen by AFP, Herman’s lawyers have sued the Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Trust, the legal entity that owns Woods’s Florida home. The suit alleges that “agents” for Woods duped Herman into leaving the mansion last year by telling her to prepare for a vacation. “By trickery, agents of the defendant (Woods) convinced the plaintiff (Herman) to pack a suitcase for a short vacation and, when she arrived at the airport, they told her she had been locked out of her residence,” the filing states. Herman’s lawyers claim Woods is violating an “oral tenancy agreement” that allowed her to live in the mansion—reportedly worth $54 million—and are seeking damages.
The dispute threatens to thrust Woods’s private life back into the media spotlight, 14 years after the sex scandal that nearly destroyed his career. Woods’s squeaky‑clean image collapsed in 2009 after revelations of multiple infidelities, leading to his divorce from his first wife, Elin Nordegren, in 2010. Since then, he has gradually rebuilt his career, winning the Masters in 2019 as part of a fairytale comeback after years of injuries and surgeries. He suffered another setback in 2021 when a serious rollover crash in California jeopardized his playing career, but he returned to major‑championship golf last year at the Masters.
The golfing icon is not playing at this week’s Players Championship in Florida, but he has said he hopes to compete in April’s Masters in Augusta.
Comments are closed for this story.