Flying solo! Tiger Woods’ ex-girlfriend Erica Herman claimed she was dumped on an airport tarmac by the athlete’s lawyer in an elaborate “scheme” as their legal battle continues.
The former manager of The Woods Jupiter, 39, alleged in court documents filed on Friday, May 5, that she was lured from the former couple’s shared home “through trickery” after a “dispute” with the golfer, 47, in October 2022 — only to be broken up with and ejected from their house.
“The scheme involved convincing Ms. Herman to pack for a weekend excursion to the Bahamas,” Herman’s attorneys claimed in paperwork obtained by Us Weekly. “She and Mr. Woods often travelled on short notice for quick getaways, and she was told this would be another such trip.” (According to the filing, the now-exes argued at the time over whether Herman would “be permitted to continue living in the house” they shared in the event they called it quits.)
The Florida native packed light for the getaway as she expected to “return home in a few days,” per the filing. A private plane was allegedly waiting when she arrived at the airport.
“Instead of boarding the plane, Mr. Woods told Ms. Herman to talk to his lawyer, and Mr. Woods left,” the docs read. “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.”
Herman claimed she was notified by Woods’ lawyer that she “would not even be able to see the children or her pets again.” (The five-time Masters winner shares daughter Sam, 15, and son Charlie, 14, with ex-wife Elin Nordegren.)
The California native’s attorney allegedly advised Herman that she “had no legal rights” and tried to “force” Herman in to signing “a non-disclosure and arbitration agreement,” which she refused.
The University of Central Florida alum’s legal team argued in her May filing that neither Woods nor his lawyer “invoked some pre-existing arbitration agreement that day as they ejected Ms. Herman from the house and took away her personal property and pets.”
It was after that “scheme” that Herman filed her October 2022 lawsuit against the Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Trust, which owns the house that she had been living in with Woods after starting their romantic relationship in 2017. She is seeking $30 million.
News broke in March that Herman and Woods had called it quits after dating five years. Us confirmed at the time that the former Blue Martini lounge VIP manager was attempting to nullify the NDA that the professional athlete had her sign in 2017.
Herman cited the Speak Out Act in her March filing, which “prohibits the judicial enforceability of a nondisclosure clause or nondisparagement clause agreed to before a dispute arises involving sexual assault or sexual harassment in violation of federal, tribal, or state law,” per Congress.
Woods, for his part, called his ex’s claims “meritless.” He alleged in his own set of court docs in March that Herman was “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.”
However, in Herman’s filing from this month, she further alleged that Woods sexually harassed her shortly after she began working at his restaurant in 2014. Her attorneys claimed that she was “forced” to sign an NDA in 2017 out of fear that she would “be fired from her job” ahead of the pair’s romantic relationship.
Herman then claimed that her 2022 “ejection from her home also shows this dispute relates to sexual harassment.” According to her legal team, “When the sexual relationship ended, she was kicked out of her home.”
The lawyers pointed out that since the former restaurant worker had a “tenancy agreement with the trust” that owns the home, she should have been allowed to stay there despite the pair’s split.
“That agreement was broken, and Mr. Woods and his agents have taken the position that this happened because of the end of the sexual relationship between Ms. Herman and Mr. Woods,” the May docs read. “In other words, the landlord made the availability of her housing conditional on her having sexual relationship with a co-tenant. That conduct amounts to sexual harassment under federal and Florida fair housing laws.”
