What went wrong?
Golf legend Tiger Woods and his girlfriend of nearly six years, Erica Herman, appear to have gone their separate ways in wake of bombshell legal documents filed by the restauranteur.
In the court papers, obtained by TMZ on Wednesday, Herman is seeking to nullify a non-disclosure agreement she alleges Woods made her sign at the beginning of their relationship, which she lists as August 2017.
She claims the NDA should not be enforced due to the Speak Out Act, which provides an exemption in scenarios where there is evidence of sexual assault or harassment.
Although Herman is not directly accusing Woods of any indiscretion, she alleges the 47-year-old pro is “aggressively enforcing” the NDA — and made it clear that wants to publicly share her experiences with Woods throughout their nearly six-year relationship.
Prior to the news of Herman’s legal filing, there was no sign of a breakup between her and Woods.
In fact, the usually private Herman was believed to be the main catalyst behind Woods’ golf comeback and image reconstruction following multiple injuries, surgeries, scandals, and his near fatal car accident in Feb. 2021.
In his first interview after the accident, which nearly took his left leg, Woods told Golf Digest that Herman was by his side in the hospital and helped with his recovery.
“There was a point in time when, I wouldn’t say it was 50/50, but it was damn near there, if I was going to walk out of that hospital with one leg,” Woods said. “Once I [kept it], I wanted to test and see if I still had my hands. So even in the hospital, I would have [girlfriend] Erica [Herman] and [friend] Rob [McNamara] throw me something. Throw me anything.”
Woods and Herman have yet to address the status of their relationship — and the 82-time PGA Tour winner has not acknowledged Herman’s legal filing.
The reported ex-couple has not been seen publicly together in months.
Herman did not appear to be in attendance at the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational tournament in February — which marked Woods’ first time competing on the Tour since the Open Championship in 2022.
When Woods returned to Augusta for the 2022 Masters in April, Herman gushed over his efforts to return to the course.
“I mean, nothing ever surprises me about him,” Herman said at the time, per Golf.com. “But he’d just worked so hard to be here, that was the one thing I knew: once he got here, he wasn’t going to go home.”
A potential split between Woods and Herman could have gone unnoticed due the private nature of their relationship.
Herman moved in to Woods’ Jupiter, Fla. home with his kids — Sam, 15, and 13-year-old Charlie — since at least 2019, Page Six reported.
Herman and Woods met when she was an undergrad at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, where she studied political science and hoped to become a lawyer.
Herman, a New Jersey native, eventually worked as a general manager at Woods’ restaurant, The Woods Jupiter in Florida, for several months in 2017.
“She worked at Blue Martini in Orlando as a bartender to get through college,” said Gianni Nailor, who was employed as a server assistant in 2016. “And he came to the bar [as a customer].”
At the Presidents’ Cup in October 2017, Herman appeared to go public with the relationship when she was seen wearing a “player spouse” badge, which is normally reserved for wives or significant others of players.
Woods also went public with their relationship in October 2017, when he posted an Instagram photo with Herman at the World Series between the Dodgers and the Astros.
Just two days after making their relationship public, Herman accompanied Woods to court in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where he pleaded guilty to reckless driving after being found asleep in his car in May 2017.
Herman supported Woods in the Royal box at Wimbledon in July 2018, and they shared a passionate kiss on the course after Woods won the 2018 TOUR Championship — his first competitive win after multiple back surgeries that nearly derailed his career.
Herman was also by Woods’ side as he won the 2019 Masters.
Four months later, Herman shut down breakup rumors, telling RadarOnline in August 2019 that her romance with Woods was “great with no end in sight.”
Herman had even reportedly grown close to Woods’ ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, and accompanied the family on trips and vacations.
Woods and Nordegren, a former model, divorced in 2010 after the golfer was accused of cheating with as many as a dozen other women.
The 15-time major champion previously sought treatment for sex addiction following the demise of his marriage to Nordegren.