Silence is golden for tigress linked to Tiger Woods

Published on Thursday 3 December 2009 21:01

A NIGHTCLUB hostess said to have had an affair with Tiger Woods cancelled a news conference last night after what were said to be "frantic contacts" from the billionaire golfer's camp.

• Tiger Woods and wife Elin. Picture: Getty

Two days after dismissing reports of an affair as "just dumb stuff", Rachel Uchitel, 34, had reportedly been set to change her story and admit that she had lied in an attempt to protect the golf star from scandal.

Her change of heart came after reporters obtained proof that her trip to Melbourne last month – which she had said in an interview with the New York Post on Tuesday was "nothing to do with Tiger" – was paid for by him. He was playing in the Australian Masters.

But hours before Ms Uchitel's scheduled appearance in Los Angeles, her lawyer, Gloria Allred, cancelled it, citing "unforeseen circumstances." She refused to comment on a report by RadarOnline.com, a celebrity news website, that Ms Uchitel had put a $1 million pricetag on her silence.

The scandal has already brought a lucrative payday for two other women who have gone public with their stories, including Jaimee Grubbs, 24, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress who claims to have had a three-year affair with Woods.

She cashed in her story to US Weekly magazine for a reported $150,000 (90,000), spilling her heartache over the fact that Woods, a married father of two, had two-timed her.

"To see that he was inviting another girl to Australia, it hurts," she complained. "I'm still bitter."

Woods, 33, and his wife, Elin Nordegren, 29, stayed out of sight yesterday at their home in Florida. They are said to have had a furious row after a report in National Enquirer magazine that Woods had been sleeping with Ms Uchitel who, it emerged yesterday, had been exchanging texts with him when Ms Nordegren seized the phone and confronted him. Ms Nordegren is said to have smashed up the hallway of their home, and shattered two rear windows of his Cadillac Escalade, which he drove into a tree as he fled, knocking himself out.

In a public apology on Wednesday, Woods admitted to "transgressions" and vowed that he would "strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves".

Estimates of the sum Ms Nordegren could hope to win in any future divorce settlement, should his efforts to mend his marriage fail, range anywhere up to $300m (180m), a figure that US Weekly magazine claims was set down in a pre-nuptial agreement before the couple's 2004 wedding.

Jesper Parnevik, a Swedish golfer, was the first of Woods' peers to break ranks yesterday. He and his wife Mia employed Ms Nordegren, a Swedish model, to work as their children's nanny in 2000, and introduced her to Woods the following year at the British Open.

"I feel really sorry for Elin, since me and my wife were at fault for hooking her up with him," Mr Parnevik told the Golf Channel.

"We probably thought he was a better guy than he is. I would probably need to apologise to her – and hope she uses a driver next time instead of the 3-iron."

He added: "When you are the guy he is, the world's best athlete, you should think more before you do stuff… and maybe not 'Just do it' like Nike says."

Woods is next due to play on 18 February, in the World Matchplay Championship in Arizona.

Neal Pilson, a former president of CBS Sports, said: "The ratings for Tiger are going to be higher than they might be ordinarily. I don't think there will be any negative fallout for golf."

HIS BEVY OF BEAUTIES

RACHEL Uchitel, a nightclub hostess in New York, is one of three women to whom the embattled golfing star has been linked in recent days.

The 34-year-old is said to have met Woods in Australia last month when he was playing in a tournament.

It was National Enquirer magazine reports about Ms Uchitel that are said to have caused last Friday's car accident. She has denied the affair, insisting she only welcomed Woods to a club where she worked and met him "for two seconds".

Woods is also reported to have had a lengthy affair with Los Angeles cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs. US Weekly magazine has released a recording said to feature Woods pleading with the 24-year-old to help him to cover his tracks. She claims she has been seeing the star secretly for two and a half years. The voicemail message is reported to have been recorded three days before his car accident.

The release is thought to have triggered Woods' surprise admission to "personal sins".

Ms Grubbs told the magazine she met Woods at a Las Vegas nightclub two months before Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren, gave birth to their first child.

Meanwhile, Kalika Moquin, 27, a leading nightclub promoter in Las Vegas, has been named in media reports as Woods' third mistress. She has worked for a host of top nightspots and is currently head of marketing at the Bank.