Explosive Accusations: Tiger Woods Faces $30 Million Legal Battle with Ex-Girlfriend Over Alleged Harassment and Nondisclosure Agreement
Golfer Tiger Woods is facing a $30m legal battle with his ex-girlfriend, Erica Herman, who has accused him of initiating a sexual relationship with her. Tiger Woods Faces $30 Million
At the same time, she was his employee, and he threatened to fire her if she did not sign a nondisclosure agreement that she now wants voided.
Herman managed Woods’ Palm Beach County restaurant before and during the first years of their romantic relationship.
She claims that Woods’ alleged threat to fire her if she did not sign the contract was harassment. Herman is separately suing the trust that owns Woods’ mansion, alleging that he verbally promised in 2017 that she could live there for at least 11 years but kicked her out after five.
Woods’ attorneys must ask Circuit Judge Elizabeth Metzger to halt Herman’s lawsuit against their client. They argue that the former couple’s nondisclosure agreement requires all disputes to be settled privately by an arbitrator, not in court.
However, Herman argues that the nondisclosure agreement is unenforceable under a new federal law that says such contracts can be voided when sexual abuse or sexual harassment occurs.
In her unlawful eviction lawsuit against the trust, Herman is basing her $30m claim on how much it would cost to rent a property like Woods’ mansion for the six years of residence she was allegedly denied.
Woods denies that the 47-year-old golfer ever sexually assaulted or harassed Herman. He has called her accusations in court documents “utterly meritless.”
Before they dated, Woods hired Herman in 2014 to help develop and operate the golfer’s The Woods sports bar and restaurant nearby Jupiter.
They did not agree on when their romantic relationship and cohabitation began. Woods says their romantic relationship began in 2017, shortly before she moved in with him that August – about when the nondisclosure agreement was signed.
Woods cut the recent Masters but withdrew during the third round because of foot pain. He underwent ankle surgery last month, and it is unknown when he will compete next.
He has had a series of injuries and surgeries, including fusion surgery on his lower back in 2017 and shattered bones in his right leg from a February 2021 crash in Los Angeles when he drove his SUV off a coastal road while driving about 85 mph.
Woods and his former wife, Elin Nordegren, divorced in 2010, some nine months after he was caught in a series of extramarital affairs that cost him blue-chip corporate sponsors and tarnished an image that had been largely impeccable.