Tiger Woods is in the public eye once again as his long time girlfriend Erica Herman, now ex-girlfriend, requested that a judge remove her from a non-disclosure agreement that she claims she was forced to sign.
The golfer legend had Herman sign the NDA when they started dating back in 2017, and she is now filing a civil complaint against Woods in Martin County, Florida in the Circuit Court of the 19th Judicial Circuit.
As the couple heads towards a break up, Herman and her attorney are attempting to have the the non-disclosure agreement nullified by citing the Speak Out Act. According to Congress.gov, the Speak Out Act is a federal law that:
“Prohibits the judicial enforceability of a nondisclosure clause or non-disparagement clause agreed to before a dispute arises involving sexual assault or sexual harassment in violation of federal, tribal, or state law.”
This meaning that Herman and her attorney are indicating that allegations of sexual abuse between Woods and Herman could invalidate the non-disclosure agreement.
The tumultuous split between Woods and Herman has been taking place rather quietly over the last couple of months, but more information on the break up has began to leak out due to official court filed documents.
On top of the NDA, the New York Post reports that the issue that sparked the debacle within the relationship is how it allegedly ended.
According to reports, Tiger Woods tricked Herman into leaving the home they had been sharing under the pretense that the couple would be taking a brief vacation away. Once Herman had left the premises, the court documents reveal that Woods allegedly locked his long time girlfriend out.
Woods then proceeded to use “trickery” to keep Herman from returning to the Jupiter, Florida, home and she claims that she was “frightened away” from going back to the house that her and Woods shared during their dating relationship.
Herman and her attorney believe that her removal from the home broke an “oral tenancy agreement” to rightfully live in the house for a certain period of time. Herman is suing for damages exceeding $30 million dollars, which is based on the approximate monthly rental value of the property.
If the NDA were to be nullified, it would allow for Herman to open up more publicly about the relationship between her and the golf star. In the case that the NDA is validated even through the complaints, Herman and her attorney want to know how far the agreement stretches and if it would also keep Herman from sharing pictures and other information from sources not restricted by the disclosure (such as family).
Woods finds himself amongst legal battles once again as he attempts to make yet another return to the game of golf. He most recently played at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, and decided to skip this weekend’s Players Championship in order to prepare for the Masters Tournament in April.
With more of the legal complaints surfacing this week, his life off the golf course could have also kept Woods from competing in this weekend’s tournament at TPC Sawgrass.
