Tiger Woods’ ex-girlfriend says she was tricked out of shared home

A lawsuit filed by Tiger Woods’ ex-girlfriend claims he tricked her into packing a bag and leaving their shared home before locking her out.

Lawyers for Erica Herman, who began dating the golfer in 2017, argue she is owed $30m (£25m) due to the way she was suddenly evicted from the house.

In a separate lawsuit, she wants a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) she signed with Mr Woods to be cancelled.

A representative for Mr Woods, 47, did not immediately comment.

The couple’s break-up has not been formally announced. They have not been seen together in public since attending the US Open tennis tournament in New York last August.

Ms Herman, 38, had previously worked at the 15-time major champion’s Florida restaurant, The Woods Jupiter.

A lawsuit she filed in October against a homestead trust held by Mr Woods has only now emerged. It alleges she was locked out of their shared home in Hobe Sound, Florida.

“Specifically, by trickery, agents of the Defendant convinced the Plaintiff to pack a suitcase for a short vacation and, when she arrived at the airport, they told her she had been locked out of her residence,” according to the court documents seen by the BBC.

The legal action says Ms Herman’s personal possessions were removed from the property.

She also says that $40,000 of her money was “misappropriated”, adding that representatives of the trust then made “scurrilous and defamatory allegations about how she obtained the money”.

Separate legal documents filed by Ms Herman’s lawyers on Monday in a court in Martin County, Florida, near where the couple had been living together, challenge her NDA with Mr Woods.

The civil lawsuit, also reviewed by BBC News, argues Ms Herman’s agreement with Mr Woods is “invalid and unenforceable” due to the 2022 Speak Out Act, which limits the enforceability of NDAs in cases of sexual assault or harassment.

However, her legal action does not detail any such allegations.

Ms Herman, her lawyers say, is “currently unsure what other information about her own life she may discuss or with whom”.

Her attorney, Benjamin Hodas, did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.

Ms Herman had been regularly seen by Mr Woods’ side in the past six years, including as he was recovering from a severe car accident that, it was initially feared, could end his golf career.