For Tiger Woods, 2009 was both the height of his career — and the year it all went off the rails. He played in 19 tournaments, finishing in the top 10 in 16 of them, winning seven. But he also was addicted to painkillers, sleeping pills — and sex. He was living recklessly, hooking up with porn stars and keeping a regular girlfriend, Rachel Uchitel, secret from his wife, Elin. As recounted in the recent bestselling biography “Tiger Woods,” it all fell apart that Thanksgiving, when the National Enquirer revealed Tiger’s cheating. The emotional fallout, coupled with escalating back pain, would keep Woods in the wilderness for a decade before his spectacular win at the 2019 Masters. When it became apparent that a platoon of high-priced lawyers were not going to be able to derail the story, Woods and his team started circling the wagons.
It fell to Tiger to convince his wife. He told her the tabloid story was a lie, that there was no affair between him and Rachel Uchitel. But on Monday, November 23, in advance of publication, the Uchitel exposé began circulating on the internet. It contained a quote attributed to her that read like a dagger directed at Elin: “It’s Tiger Woods. I don’t care about his wife! We’re in love.”
Blindsided, Elin didn’t know what to believe. It was the week of Thanksgiving, and their second child, Charlie, had just learned to walk and was starting to say his first words. For Elin, these were monumental milestones of joy. But the suspicions in her mind were making it impossible to focus on anything else. In need of someone to confide in, she called the one person she trusted above all — her identical twin, Josefin. They had been best friends since childhood. Elin knew Josefin would know what to do.
After obtaining a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Josefin received her law degree in Sweden and joined the American-based firm McGuireWoods LLP. When Elin called her, Josefin was working out of the firm’s London office, where she specialized in mergers and acquisitions. She immediately came to her sister’s aid, providing emotional support and advice.
With the situation worsening, Woods took the extraordinary step of arranging a phone call between Elin and Uchitel, who corroborated Tiger’s account that there had been no sexual relationship between them.
Unconvinced, Elin wanted to see Tiger’s phone. Afraid that she would find out about the other women in his life, Tiger frantically tried to cover his tracks. He left an urgent voice mail with Jaimee Grubbs: “Can you please take your name off your phone? My wife went through my phone and may be calling you. So if you can, please take your name off … [and] just have it as a number on the voice mail. You’ve got to do this for me. Huge. Quickly. All right. Bye.”
The following day, the Enquirer landed on supermarket racks in the Orlando area. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and the “World Exclusive” headline “Tiger Woods Cheating S
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