14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since golfer Tiger Woods was involved in what the media calls the most expensive car crash in history, not for what was damaged during the accident but for what followed afterwards, speculation about what exactly happened then continued to make the rounds. Investigative reporter Gerald Posner of The Daily Beast spoke to witnesses and close friends and now has the full account of how wife Elin Nordegren impersonated Tiger in a text message to his lover and how that unleashed the scandal that continues to grab headlines.
Things started to precipitate a night before the night of the crash, two very reliable sources tell Posner under condition of anonymity. It was then that Tiger went to Elin and told her that the National Enquirer was about to run a story on his alleged love affair with Rachel Uchitel, claiming the account was false. He even convinced his wife to talk to Rachel on the phone who, in turn, told her the same: that it was all a lie. Then, on the night of the crash, Elin took Tiger’s phone and sent a few text messages to Rachel, who thought it was her lover at the other end.
“Just before Tiger’s affair with Rachel Uchitel was reported in the National Enquirer, he put Uchitel on the phone with his wife for a half-hour, so she could convince Elin the relationship was platonic. Elin confirmed her lingering suspicions about Tiger’s affair with Uchitel by impersonating her husband in text messages with Uchitel, prompting the rage that led to Woods fleeing his house. Tiger had taken the sedative Ambien that night, and was in a stupor when Elin woke him following her sting operation on Uchitel,” The Daily Beast writes based on the account of the two witnesses.
“After his wife’s wakeup, Tiger sent Uchitel a panicky text warning her that Elin had discovered the affair and implying that divorce was imminent. Elin quickly found this text as well, which precipitated her chasing him out of the house with a golf club. Tiger did not immediately return home when he was released from the hospital, likely explaining why Elin did not accede to much-publicized requests from visiting police officers to chat with Woods,” the publication goes on to say.
Right now, the two insiders say, Elin is waiting for Tiger to complete whatever treatment he’s following so that she can decide whether a divorce is the right course of action or not. She is usually very cool and controlled, they add, but her outburst, lashing out at her husband like that, truly shows how hard she took the idea of being cheated on.