Detailed Biography

Elin Maria Pernilla Nordegren is a Swedish former model. She is married to professional golfer Tiger Woods.

Early life

Nordegren was born in Stockholm. Her mother, Barbro Holmberg, is a politician and former Swedish migration and asylum policy minister. Her father, Thomas, is a radio journalist who served as a bureau chief in Washington, D.C.. She has one older brother, Axel, and a twin sister, Josefin. Nordegren and her sister worked odd summer jobs and as cashiers in supermarkets to finance their studies. She started modeling in 2000, and appeared on the cover of Cafe Sport magazine in the summer of 2000.

Personal life

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.

On June 18, 2007, Woods announced the birth of their daughter, Sam Alexis Woods, a day after coming second in the U.S.Open.

On September 2, 2008, Woods announced they were expecting another child in late winter. Five months later it was announced that Elin had given birth to a boy, Charlie Axel on February 8, 2009.

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 her. Nordegren, whose modeling work did include bikini photo shoots, vehemently denied that she has ever posed nude. The nude photographs were actually of Playboy magazine model Kim Hiott, and most were derived from the 2000 edition of Playboy's "Nudes" special edition. Despite this identification and repeated denials from Nordegren and Woods, in September 2006 Irish magazine The Dubliner published an article "Ryder Cup Filth for Ireland," which included the nude photographs of Hiott and stated they were of Nordegren. Woods described the story as "unacceptable," and his agent Mark Steinberg said, "Everyone knew it wasn’t her. It's plain as day." 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."

On November 16, 2006, Nordegren filed a libel suit against The Dubliner. Nordegren won the lawsuit and as part of the settlement accepted by a Dublin court, The Dubliner was required to publish its lengthy apology in a variety of venues. If the magazine failed to meet the conditions, the award would be increased to $366,500 and the publishers would have to pay Nordegren's legal costs.