Elin Nordegren
Elin Maria Pernilla Nordegren was born on 1st January 1980, and is known for her six-year marriage to professional golfer Tiger Woods. The blonde was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and comes from a prominent family; her mother, Barbro Holmberg, is the former Governor of Gavleborg County as well as Swedish migration and asylum policy minister, while her father, Thomas Nordegren, has worked as a radio journalist and bureau chief in Washington, D.C.
Elin was taught the value of money from a young age, and financed her studies by working as a supermarket cashier, alongside her twin sister Josefin. In 2000, the blonde launched her modelling career, and almost immediately was seen on the cover of Café Sport magazine.
Although Elin no longer models, she furthered her education by graduating in 2014 from Florida’s Rollins College with a psychology degree – and an outstanding senior award –.
2000 – 2010
While working at a clothing store in Stockholm, Elin met Mia Parvenik, wife of Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik. Mia soon hired Elin as an au pair to their children, which required her to relocate to the US. During the 2001 Open Championship, Tiger Woods was introduced to the beautiful blonde and fell head over heels. As it happens, Tiger had already been asking to be introduced to Elin for a year. At the time, though, she was seeing someone else and wasn’t interested.
Despite Elin initially taking on the well-paying au pair gig to pay for her college degree to become a child psychologist, life had different plans for her when she met and began dating Tiger. In November 2003, the couple attended the Presidents Cup tournament together, then became officially engaged after a romantic proposal that took place at the Shamwari Game Reserve.
Elin and Tiger wasted no time in planning the wedding, tying the knot less than a year later at a golfing resort in Barbados. Tiger went all-out for the milestone celebration, renting the entire resort – including 110 rooms and three golf courses – for a week, which cost almost $2 million.
In 2006, nude photographs that were supposedly of Elin began circulating online. The compromising photos – which turned out to be fake – were soon published by The Dubliner, with the Irish publication stating that they were images of the model. After filing a libel suit against the magazine, Elin won almost $140,000 – The Dubliner was also required to publish an apology.
A day after Tiger finished second in the 2007 U.S. Open, he announced the birth of the couple’s first daughter, Sam Alexis; their second child, Charlie Axel, was born in early 2009. Although the couple appeared to be happier than ever with the new additions to their family, their marriage broke down shortly afterwards, as in December 2009, the golfer admitted to infidelity.
The cheating scandal began unraveling a month prior, when various news outlets reported the golfer’s affair with nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel. Days later, Tiger crashed his luxury car in front of his Florida mansion at 2 a.m. after supposedly being confronted by his irate wife and trying to flee the scene.
After the crash was reported, more and more women came out with proof such as voicemail messages and text messages. In one voicemail published by US Weekly, a man that appeared to be Tiger was heard asking one of the women for a “huge favor”, saying: “Can you please take your name off your phone? My wife went through my phone and may be calling you.”
Despite initially denying the allegations, Tiger came clean, which was when even more women came out of the woodwork. In the end, the disgraced golfer admitted to sleeping with 120 women or more during the course of his marriage. The athlete’s brand and career was seriously damaged by the scandal, but more importantly, so was his marriage: in August 2010, Elin and Tiger finalized their divorce, with Elin’s sister Josefin being part of her legal team.
2010 Onwards
After receiving a $100 million payout from Tiger, the first thing Elin did as a divorced woman was purchase a 1920s Florida mansion for $12 million. The investment turned out to be a poor one, as the former nanny was forced to demolish the home after being advised to do so by an architect due to it not being structurally safe.
Before demolishing the property, Elin allowed the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity to enter the home for four weeks, and salvage any valuable items. The contents of the estate were auctioned, and were expected to bring in as much as $30,000, although no exact figures are available.
Although Tiger has expressed remorse over the years, and was even said to want to remarry Elin (some news outlets claimed that he proposed for a second time in Christmas 2012), the model hasn’t looked back since the divorce. During the 2010s, she dated the philanthropist and coal mogul Chris Cline and travelled to Haiti with him on a church mission; in June 2019, news broke that the blonde was expecting a child with her current partner, the former NFL player Jordan Cameron. Their son, Filip, was born four months later; in early 2020, the couple legally changed his name to Arthur.
These days, Elin is a mother of four: however, the name of her second son with Jordan remains a mystery. Elin kept her fourth pregnancy incredibly lowkey, and caused a media frenzy after being publicly congratulated by Tiger on the birth; at the time, Tiger and his son Charlie were competing together at the PNC Championship.
Elin has an estimated net worth of $100 million, almost double that of her partner. In September 2020, the former golf wife sold her Palm Beach home for $28.6 million, and moved into a more modest $10 million property. As the former model isn’t active on social media and stays out of the spotlight as much as possible, not much is known about her current lifestyle.
