Tiger Woods is one of the best sports stars of all time and I have always envied his winning instinct, his dedication and how amazing he is at golf.
He has also done much good off the golf course; such as The Tiger Woods Foundation which aids children all over the world with education and is all about empowering minorities, particularly the underprivileged minority students.
However, regardless of all the good things you may have to say about Woods, there are a lot of people who do not like him.
And I believe many people turned their backs on him following that massive infidelity scandal that was exposed in 2009.
At the time, The National Enquirer ran the story of how Woods had been cheating on his Swedish wife, Elin Nordegren, with some reports suggesting that he had been unfaithful to at least 18 women.
Only a few days after the article was published, Woods drove out of the home of the couple in his car and crashed into a fire hydrant and a tree.
It was quick, yet the great Tiger Woods was defeated. But what happened to one of the most popular and greatest athletes in the world? Tiger Woods had it all, a beautiful wife, cute kids, plenty of money, and a great career.
I recall reading it the first time that Woods was cheating on Elin Nordegren, and I never forget thinking, what the hell is he thinking?
It is history, of course, but I still cannot help wondering what happened to Nordegren and the children. That has, of course, an answer, but we will begin at the beginning.
The meeting of Elin and Tiger
Jesper Parnevik is the reason why Tiger Woods began dating Elin Nordegren.
Nordegren was a nanny to the children of Parnevik, a Swedish professional golfer residing in the US. Woods and Nordegren met through Parnevik, at the Open Championship in 2001.
Woods had demanded to meet Nordegren a year earlier, but she was dating another man. Therefore, it was not at all clear that Woods would have an opportunity to even meet Nordegren. Mia Parnevik, the wife of Parnevik, said that most of the golf pros were interested in their blonde and beautiful nanny.
Nordegren, who aspired to be a child psychologist, was not interested in dating Tiger Woods.
Mia Parnevik said, Tiger was OK with that. A long queue of single golfers was waiting to meet her. They were crazy about her. “
However, they met and Woods and Nordegren fell in love. They became engaged in 2003, on a four-day holiday on a South African game reserve.
The next year, the couple got married, at the 19 th hole of the Sany Lane resort in Barbados. The wedding was termed as ultra-private and some of the guests included celebrities like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley.
The two had two children. Their daughter Sam Alexis was born in 2007 and Nordegren delivered a boy, Charlie Axel, in 2009.
However, the pressure on the marriage was very evident in 2009. All hell broke loose in December of the same year when Tiger Woods extramarital affairs were revealed in the media. Parnevik, the man who introduced Woods to Nordegren, was sorry.
I feel a little bit sad about Elin because me and my wife are the ones who hooked her up with him and we must have thought he was a better man than he is, he said.
Woods left golf to concentrate on the family and marriage but it was too late, too much had been destroyed. The couple divorced in 2010 and Nordegren is reported to have received 100 million after the settlement.
According to Forbes, Nordegren purchased a luxury home in Florida, where she and the children reside since then.
Over the last few years, Nordegren and Woods have mended their relationship and the two are now friends, especially in the interest of their children.
It is great to have the relationship I have now with her. She is one of my best friends. We can call each other on the phone, and we communicate constantly. Both of us understand that our kids are the most important things in our lives. I wish I had known that at the time, Woods told Time.
My relationship with Tiger is all about our children and we are doing very well, we are doing very well, and I am so glad that is the way it is. Nordegren told People in 2014, He is a great father.
Nordegren never lost her dream of becoming a psychologist, and after nine years at Rollins University, she graduated in psychology.
Nordegren was a keynote speaker at the college commencement and poked fun at her experience as a college co-ed as she listened to one-liners about her divorce with Woods.
I was shocked when they phoned and asked me whether I would like to deliver this speech. I have been labeled as a woman of few words in the press and the media has criticized me as not talking much. A commencement speech is supposed to be inspirational. And when I began to consider what I was to say to you all to-day, I was a bit frightened. How would I say something to motivate us all after a long college ride?
A week later, after that phone call, I stepped off an American Airlines flight and one of the flight attendants handed me a note. I grabbed the note and mumbled a quick thanks and kept on picking up my bags. I had time to read it later. It said: Thank you, you are my inspiration, greetings to another single mom. The beautiful words of a complete stranger moved me.”
Nordegren has dated the late Chris Clin, an American billionaire entrepreneur, and philanthropist, after her broken marriage with Woods. In June 2019, Nordegren revealed that she was pregnant once again, this time with former NFL player Jordan Cameron.
She is so happy and I am so happy that I have my ninth grandchild, yes it is not fantastic, Nordegrens mother, Barbro Holmberg”, said the Swedish magazine, Svensk Dam.
They have a boy born in October 2019. Elin Nordegren, now 41, has made a life of her own, free of paparazzi. She has received a formal license to practice in mental health and psychology issues according to media in Sweden.
She resides in a luxurious villa in Florida with her husband Jordan Cameron, which is estimated to be worth 14 million dollars. The 11 bedroom, 15 bathroom, 2 kitchen, wine cellar, movie theatre, and gym home is 25000 square feet.
Tiger says that he and Elin are now in a healthy relationship and they still take care of and support their children. Elin appeared in the final round of the PNC Championship in Florida in 2020.
She was there with her daughter Sam as they watched Charlie Woods play with Tiger. Notah Begay III is a professional golfer and an analyst at the Golf Channel, who is a longtime friend of Tiger Woods. He threw some new light on the relationship between Elin and Tiger.
Begay III said it has been amazing. You never know how the separation of parents will impact the children and both Tiger and Elin have made it such a big priority to safeguard the interests of their children and their privacy. Tiger discussed it yesterday in his post-round remarks, ensuring that he bears the brunt of the media requests here, attempting to ensure that both Sam and Charlie, on both Elin and Tiger, have a good quality childhood like any other person out there.”
