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Elin Maria Pernilla Nordegren¹ Woods (born January 1, 1980, in Stockholm, Sweden) is a former Swedish model, and is married to the professional golfer Tiger Woods.

Early life

Nordegren's mother, Barbro Holmberg, is a politician and former migration and asylum policy minister of Sweden, while her father, Thomas, is a radio journalist who has served as bureau chief in Washington, D.C. for the Swedish Broadcasting media. She has one older brother, Axel, and a twin sister, Josefin.

Relationship with Tiger Woods

Nordegren and her twin sister Josefin had been working as au pairs for Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik when he introduced her to Woods during the 2001 British Open. In November 2003, Woods and Nordegren attended the Presidents Cup tournament in South Africa and became officially engaged when Woods proposed at the luxury Shamwari Game Reserve. On October 5, 2004, they were married by the 19th hole at the exclusive Sandy Lane resort in Barbados. The ceremony reportedly cost over $1.5 million. Privacy was achieved by buying out the island's sole helicopter charter company and by booking the entire hotel - 200 rooms ranging in price from $700 to $8,000 per night.

On June 18, 2007, Woods announced the birth of their daughter, Sam Alexis Woods, early that morning, just a day after Woods finished second in the 2007 U.S. Open.²

On September 2, 2008, Woods announced on his website they were expecting another child in late winter.³

Nude photographs hoax

Shortly after Nordegren's relationship with Woods became public, nude photographs of a woman resembling Nordegren began circulating on the internet, with text claiming it was, in fact, her. Nordegren, whose modeling work did include bikini photo shoots, vehemently denied that she has ever posed nude. The nude photographs claimed to be of Nordegren actually depict Playboy magazine model Kim Hiott, and most are derived from the 2000 edition of Playboy's "Nudes" special edition.⁴⁵ Despite this identification and repeated denials from Nordegren and Woods, in September 2006 (immediately prior to the 2006 Ryder Cup) Irish magazine The Dubliner published an article "Ryder Cup Filth for Ireland," which displayed the nude photographs of Hiott and again claimed they were of Nordegren.⁶ Woods described the story as "unacceptable," and his agent Mark Steinberg said, "Everyone knew it wasn’t her. It's plain as day."⁷ Steinberg also said the couple was considering legal recourse against the magazine. The Dubliner issued an apology for the story, saying that they had printed the photos as a "satire of tabloid publishing."

Nordegren won the lawsuit and as part of the settlement accepted by a Dublin court, The Dubliner must publish its lengthy apology in a variety of venues, including in its next issue. If the magazine fails to meet the conditions the award will be increased to $366,500 and the publishers will have to pay Nordegren Woods' legal costs.

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