March 9th 2023
Tiger Woods' ex-girlfriend sues to challenge NDA
by Max Matza/BBC
Lawyers for Erica Herman, who began dating Mr Woods in 2017, cite a new law limiting the scope of NDAs in sexual harassment and assault cases.
Ms Herman's lawsuit does not detail any allegation of harassment or assault.
She argues in another lawsuit she is owed around $30m (£25m) and was locked out of a home she shared with Mr Woods.
Mark Steinberg, a representative for Mr Woods, 47, did not immediately reply to a BBC News request for comment on Wednesday.
The civil lawsuit challenging the NDA was filed on Monday in Martin County, Florida, near where the couple had been living together.
It says that Ms Herman's agreement with Mr Woods is "invalid and unenforceable" due to the passage of the Speak Out Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in December 2022 and limits the enforceability of NDAs in cases of sexual assault or harassment.
Ms Herman, her lawyers say, is "currently unsure what other information about her own life she may discuss or with whom".
Her attorney Benjamin Hodas, did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.
The couple's break-up has not been formally announced. They have not been seen together in public since attending the US Open tennis tournament in New York last August.
Ms Herman, 38, had previously worked at the 15-time major champion's Florida restaurant, The Woods Jupiter.
A separate lawsuit she filed in October against a homestead trust held by Mr Woods alleges that she was tricked into leaving the home that they had shared in order to lock her out.
"Specifically, by trickery, agents of the Defendant convinced the Plaintiff to pack a suitcase for a short vacation and, when she arrived at the airport, they told her she had been locked out of her residence," according to the court documents seen by the BBC.
That legal action says Ms Herman's personal possessions were subsequently removed from the home in Hobe Sound, Florida.
She also says that $40,000 of her money was "misappropriated", adding that representatives of the trust then made "scurrilous and defamatory allegations about how she obtained the money".
Ms Herman has been regularly seen by Mr Woods' side in the past six years, including as he was recovering from a severe car accident that, it was initially feared, could end his golf career.
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