TIMES ONLINE: A downcast and sometimes angry Tiger Woods broke his three-month silence yesterday with a rambling apology to friends, fans — and his absent wife.
Sighing heavily and sniffing back tears, the world’s leading golfer and first billion-dollar sportsman read a repetitive 14-minute statement to a small, invited audience during a week-long break from his sex addiction therapy.
“I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have to go far to find them,” he confessed. “I was wrong. I was foolish. I don’t get to play by different rules.”
Woods’s beloved mother Kultida sat in the front row at the PGA headquarters on the TPC Sawgrass course on the Florida coast, and he choked back tears as he hugged her afterwards.
His estranged wife, the Swedish supermodel Elin Nordegren, the mother of his two children, was nowhere to be seen. “I understand the press wants to ask me for the details and the times I was unfaithful. I understand people want to know if Elin and I will remain together . . . These are issues between a husband and a wife,” he said. Tiger Woods: I felt I deserved to enjoy all the temptations. I was wrong >>> James Bone, Ponte Verda Beach, Florida | Saturday, February 20, 2010
