Tiger Woods‘ former longtime girlfriend is asking a judge to remove her from a nondisclosure agreement that she claims the 15-time major champion forced her to sign when their relationship started in August 2017, according to court records obtained by ESPN.
The civil complaint filed Monday in the Circuit Court of the 19th Judicial Circuit in Martin County, Florida, is the latest in a monthslong dispute between Erica Herman and the star golfer.
Herman believes that the NDA is “invalid and unenforceable” and that a trust controlled by Woods is wrongfully using it against her. Herman’s attorney is citing a federal law, the Speak Out Act, that prevents the enforcement of nondisclosure agreements in instances of sexual assault and harassment. In a civil cover sheet to the court, Herman’s attorney, Benjamin Hodas, indicated the case involved allegations of sexual abuse, although those allegations might not involve Woods directly.
Herman didn’t make any specific allegations against Woods.
Hodas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ESPN on Wednesday. Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Monday’s complaint is the second legal filing that Herman has initiated in the last five months.
According to documents obtained by ABC News, Herman in October sued the Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Trust, which technically owns Woods’ home in Florida. She alleges that she was tricked into going on a short vacation and that when she arrived at the airport, agents for Woods “told her she had been locked out of her residence” and would not be allowed to return.
She says she had an “oral tenancy agreement” to live in the house for what the suit called “a certain duration of time” and believes damages, based on the monthly rental value of the residence, would be in excess of $30 million.
Woods’ legal team filed a motion to dismiss the complaint in November, saying Herman’s claims weren’t valid because she was not a “tenant” of the residence under the “Residential Landlord Tenant Act.”
Woods, 47, is skipping the Players this week at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He returned from a layoff of more than seven months when he made his 2023 debut at the Genesis at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. Herman, 38, wasn’t seen with him at the tournament.
Herman’s attorney alleged that Woods is trying to use the NDA to force Herman to keep details of their relationship private. If the judge decides the NDA is enforceable, Herman’s attorney asked the judge to specify how it limits her ability to disclose, among other things, “her own experiences,” “experiences of her family members,” “photographs and recordings of herself and her family members,” “information from sources other than the Defendant” and “information responding to statements that the Defendant has made or published about her or others to prove the falsity or misleading nature of those statements.”