Tiger Woods and his ex-wife Elin Nordegren have two children together, 8-year-old daughter Sam and 6-year-old son Charlie. Before long, the internet and other resources may share with them more information about their father than they over wanted to know.
Woods is aware of that, and he has already begun preparing for it. In perhaps his most revealing one-on-one interview to date, Tiger sat down with Lorne Rubenstein of TIME Magazine and spoke at length about his personal life and golf career. One of the things he revealed is that he has been honest with his children about why their parents no longer live together.
“I’ve taken the initiative with the kids, and told them up front, ‘Guys, the reason why we’re not in the same house, why we don’t live under the same roof, Mommy and Daddy, is because Daddy made some mistakes,'” Woods said he explained to Sam and Charlie. “I just want them to understand before they get to Internet age and they log on to something or have their friends tell them something. I want it to come from me so that when they come of age, I’ll just tell them the real story. But meanwhile, it’s just, ‘Hey, Daddy made some mistakes. But it’s O.K. We’re all human. We all make mistakes. But look what happened at the end of it. Look at how great you are. You have two loving parents that love you no matter what.'”
Tiger also described Nordegren as his “best friend” and expressed regret over the sex scandal that came to light in 2009.
“In hindsight, it’s not how I would change 2009 and how it all came about,” he said. “It would be having a more open, honest relationship with my ex-wife. Having the relationship that I have now with her is fantastic. She’s one of my best friends. We’re able to pick up the phone, and we talk to each other all the time. We both know that the most important things in our lives are our kids. I wish I would have known that back then.”
The interview was easily as candid as you will ever hear Tiger, and it is certainly worth reading in its entirety. He also spoke about his relationship with Lindsey Vonn and explained why it didn’t work out. According to Tiger, the separation had nothing to do with the cheating rumors that came out after the breakup.
