Tiger Woods accused of sexual harassment by ex-girlfriend
Global News
Erica Herman alleged Tiger Woods had her sign an NDA after they began a sexual relationship while she was an employee at his South Florida restaurant.
Tiger Woods‘ former long-term girlfriend Erica Herman has accused the professional golfer of sexual harassment, according to a court filing submitted in Florida on Friday.
Herman, 37, alleged Woods, 47, had her sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) after they began a sexual relationship while she was an employee at his South Florida restaurant, The Woods Jupiter. According to the legal paperwork, reviewed by Sports Illustrated, Herman would have been fired from her job if she did not sign the agreement.
Herman and her lawyer, Benjamin Hobas, equated the threat of termination to sexual harassment.
“Mr Woods was Ms Herman’s boss,” Hobas, wrote in the filing. “On Mr Woods’s own portrayal of events, he imposed an NDA on her as a condition to keep her job when she began having a sexual relationship with him. A boss imposing different work conditions on his employee because of their sexual relationship is sexual harassment.”
Herman and her lawyers argued in an earlier legal filing that the agreement should be cancelled due to the “Speak Out Act,” a piece of American legislation enacted in 2022 that declared an NDA cannot silence a victim of sexual harassment.
In a counterclaim of his own, Woods asked to have Herman’s complaints resolved in confidential arbitration instead of a public court.
In March, Woods’ lawyer called Herman “a jilted ex-girlfriend who wants to publicly litigate specious claims in court, rather than honour her commitment to arbitrate disputes in a confidential arbitration proceeding.”
Herman and Woods reportedly dated for about five years. Since their alleged split in October 2022, Herman has filed a lawsuit against Woods claiming he violated the Florida Residential Landlord Tenant Act.
