Tiger Woods’s wife will divorce the disgraced billionaire golf star and plans to spend Christmas apart after the sex scandal that has halted his career, media reports said on Wednesday.
ABC News, NBC News and People magazine, all citing unnamed sources close to Nordegren, said Elin Nordegren (29) will split with Woods after he admitted infidelity amid reports that he had affairs with at least 14 women.
”Divorce is 100% on,” ABC News’s website reported a source saying. ”She’s not rushing to divorce, however. She’s going to take her sweet time. She wants all the dirty laundry to be out on the table before she signs anything.”
The former Swedish model and mother of Tiger’s children — two-year-old daughter Sam and 10-month-old son Charlie — has met lawyers to renegotiate her prenuptial agreement with Woods, People magazine reported.
”She plans to leave Tiger,” one source was quoted as saying. ”She has made up her mind. There’s nothing to think about: he’s never going to change,” another source reportedly said.
People also reported on its website that Nordegren was taking the children to Sweden for Christmas without Woods.
”Elin is going to Sweden soon,” the source said. ”Two stewardesses and one pilot are in Sweden with the plane now getting it ready to come pick them up.”
But the same source cautioned that it was not a permanent move back to her homeland, as she planned to split her time between the two countries.
NBC News reported that Nordegren’s recent trips to a gas station and Thai restaurant without her wedding ring were meant to signal her future plans.
”She and Tiger are living separately now, but she’ll be making this split very open and official right after Christmas,” NBC reported one source as saying.
”Elin is not going to be one of these ‘stand by her man’ women,” another source told NBC. ”This is beyond embarrassing, and she has a daughter and son she has to think about, who will know about this one day.
”Forgiveness isn’t exactly around the corner.”
Nordegren has bought a beachfront estate on an island near Stockholm and several websites reported she had talked with movers at the mansion she shared with Woods near Orlando.
Entertainment gossip website TMZ reported on Wednesday that Nordegren is also near a marketing deal with Puma, a rival of Nike, which is the foremost sponsor to announce it will support Woods, after others cut their ties.
Woods has put his career on indefinite hold ”to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person,” but US magazine reported he has remained in contact with Rachel Uchitel, whose tabloid-exposed fling three weeks ago began the firestorm.
”They are not over,” a source told US, adding Woods paid her $3-million to stay silent about their relationship but continues to send her text messages.
Woods and Uchitel are both reportedly in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Uchitel has family and Woods has a $22-million yacht named Privacy.
Amid the shattering of his squeaky clean reputation, there was some support for Woods on Wednesday.
He was named Athlete of the Decade in a vote by member editors of the Associated Press, more than half of his 56 votes returned to the US-based news agency after the November 27 car crash that began his downfall.
And National Basketball Association standout Ron Artest sent him an open letter of support, calling the embattled golf star ”the perfect role model for me and my sons”.
The Los Angeles Lakers forward, who once went into the stands after being struck by a cup — touching off an infamous 2004 NBA brawl — posted the letter on his website, calling Woods a ”stand-up guy”.
Artest said he had a child with another woman after having two children with the girlfriend he would later marry.
”I have made the same mistakes,” Artest said. ”My wife is a much better wife than I am a husband. We still argue and disagree after being together 16 years.”
Meanwhile, the construction firm building ”Tiger Woods Dubai”, a golf course and housing development, said it is committed to finishing the project. — AFP
