Breakups don't get much more complicated than this—and Tiger Woods is quite familiar with complicated breakups. The golf star began dating Erica Herman in 2017, and the couple split in October 2022. Now, in court documents, Herman is claiming that Woods used false pretenses to end their relationship. She says that she was tricked into leaving the house they shared only to be told by his lawyer that Woods was done with her and that she couldn't return home.
Herman initially made legal moves in October, soon after they broke up. She is suing Woods for $30 million and has filed to have a non-disclosure agreement dissolved so that she can speak openly about their relationship and its end. She has also claimed that Woods sexually harassed her, including in arranging a "scheme" to remove her from their home.
Read on to find out more about the alleged fake vacation ruse that Herman claims Woods orchestrated and about her $30 million lawsuit.
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Herman claims she was tricked into leaving their home.
Us Weekly reported on May 9 that, in new court documents, Herman claims she was kicked out of the Florida home where she lived with Woods under the pretense of the golfer taking her on vacation.
"The scheme involved convincing Ms. Herman to pack for a weekend excursion to the Bahamas," her lawyers say in the documents. "She and Mr. Woods often travelled on short notice for quick getaways, and she was told this would be another such trip."
Herman is said to have packed a bag and been told that a private plane would be waiting at the airport. When she and Woods arrived, he allegedly told her to talk to his lawyer. "Then, Mr. Woods’s California lawyer, out of the blue, told her that she was not going anywhere, would never see Mr. Woods again, had been locked out of the house, and could not return," the documents claim. She also says she was told she would not be allowed to see their pets or Woods' children from his marriage to Elin Nordegren again. (That marriage ended in 2010 amid a cheating scandal.)
Herman asserts that Woods' lawyer told her she had "no legal rights" and tried to get her to sign a "non-disclosure and arbitration agreement," which she declined.
She initially filed a lawsuit in October 2022.
It was reported in March that Herman had filed a lawsuit against Woods and his Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Trust requesting $30 million, because she claims she was unfairly kicked out of the home. She argues that the effort to remove her from the home was premeditated and that an oral agreement that they made about her living there for 11 years had been broken, according to CBS News. Herman and her lawyers say the $30 million she's asking for is based on the rental value of the property. The mansion itself cost $54 million.
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She also says that he sexual harassed her.
Debby Wong / ShutterstockHerman managed a restaurant that Woods owned before their relationship began and during the first few years they were together. When they started dating, Herman signed an NDA regarding Woods, and she claims that he threatened to fire her if she did not sign it.
"A boss imposing different work conditions on his employee because of their sexual relationship is sexual harassment," her lawyer, Benjamin Hodas, told CBS News. Her legal team argues that this makes the NDA invalid, because of a law that invalidates NDAs if sexual harassment or sexual abuse has occurred.
As reported by Us Weekly, Herman has also claimed in legal documents that "ejection from her home also shows this dispute relates to sexual harassment," because "when the sexual relationship ended, she was kicked out of her home.”
"Because of the aggressive use of the Woods NDA against her by the Defendant and the trust under his control, the Plaintiff is unsure whether she may disclose, among other things, facts giving rise to various legal claims she believes she has," court documents regarding Herman's request to nullify the NDA read, as reported by Us Weekly. “She is also currently unsure what other information about her own life she may discuss or with whom." The documents note that she "needs a clarifying declaration from the court."
Woods called her a "jilted ex-girlfriend."
lev radin / ShutterstockOn Monday, May 8, Woods filed for a dismissal of Herman's lawsuit. According to Yahoo Sports, Woods and his attorneys claim that Herman willingly signed the NDA and agreed to settle the dispute between them in private arbitration rather than in court.
"Ms. Herman’s response evinces a lack of understanding of the procedures to be followed at the upcoming hearing," the court documents read, as reported by Yahoo Sports. "As the record plainly demonstrates, Mr. Woods has insisted at every opportunity that [Ms.] Herman is bound by the arbitration provisions of the NDA and has sought to enforce his rights thereunder."
Woods also responded to Herman's filing in March. According to Us Weekly, in those court documents, Woods' lawyers said that he "invited Ms. Herman to live with him as his guest" and that he "never negotiated an oral tenancy agreement" with her. Woods' side also said that Herman's lawsuit was "utterly meritless" and called her a "jilted ex-girlfriend who wants to publicly litigate specious claims in court, rather than honor her commitment to arbitrate disputes in a confidential arbitration proceeding."
Herman and her lawyer's reference to the federal law involving NDAs and sexual harassment was called by Woods' team “a transparent abuse of the judicial process that undermines the purpose of the federal statute and those whom the statute seeks to protect.”
