Tiger Woods's ex-wife Elin Nordegren said she has "been through hell" since news of her husband's serial infidelity surfaced but insisted that she never hit him, according to an interview released today.
Nordegren told People magazine that she and Woods tried for months to reconcile their relationship but, in the end, a marriage "without trust and love" wasn't good for anyone.
The world No1 golfer's private life became public in November 2009 after he drove his car over a fire hydrant and into a tree outside the couple's Florida home. The incident sparked a series of shocking revelations that Woods had been cheating on his wife. The couple officially divorced on Monday.
Nordegren said that she never hit Woods on the night of the car crash. "There was never any violence inside or outside our home," she said. "The speculation that I would have used a golf club to hit him is just truly ridiculous."
Nordegren said Woods left the house that night, and when he didn't return after a while, she got worried and went to look for him. She said that's when she found him in the car.
"I did everything I could to get him out of the locked car," she said. "To think anything else is absolutely wrong."
People magazine said the interview was conducted over four visits lasting a total of 19 hours at the rented home in Windermere in Florida where she now lives with their two children.
"I've been through hell," she said. "It's hard to think you have this life, and then all of a sudden – was it a lie? You're struggling because it wasn't real. But I survived. It was hard, but it didn't kill me."
In an interview on NBC's Today show this morning, Sandra Sobieraj Westfall, a reporter on People magazine, said Nordegren and her team approached the magazine.
Westfall said Nordegren wanted people to know three things: that she is not violent and never hit Woods; she had no idea anything was going on; and that the couple's relationship was a real marriage for her.
Nordegren and Woods were married in Barbados in October 2004 and have a three-year-old daughter, Sam, and an 18-month-old son, Charlie.
In the interview, Nordegren would not disclose the amount of the divorce settlement but did say that "money can't buy happiness or put my family back together."
"I'm so embarrassed that I never suspected. For the past three years, when all this was going on, I was home a lot more with pregnancies, then the children and my school."
Woods, who is playing in the Barclays tournament at the Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey this week, has not yet commented on the couple's divorce.
Nordegren said she would eventually come to forgive Woods but that she is still working on it. "Forgiveness takes time," she said. "It is the last step of the grieving process."
In the meantime, the Swedish-born Nordegren said she is excited to start the next chapter of her life and intends to stay in the United States with her children.
She also said that she has "not watched one minute of golf."
