tiger forestThe long-time ex-girlfriend is asking a judge to remove her from a confidentiality agreement that she says the 15-time Grand Slam champion forced her to sign when they began their relationship in August 2017, according to court records obtained by ESPN.
The civil lawsuit filed Monday in Circuit Court for the 19th Judicial Circuit in Martin County, Florida, is the latest in a months-long dispute between Erica Herman and the star golfer.
Herman believes the NDA is “invalid and unenforceable” and that a Woods-controlled trust is misusing it against him. Herman’s attorney is citing a federal law, the Speak Out Act, that prevents the enforcement of confidentiality agreements in sexual assault and harassment cases. In a civil cover sent to the court, Herman’s attorney, Benjamin Hodas, indicated that the case involved allegations of sexual assault, though those allegations may not directly involve Woods.
Herman did not make any specific accusations against Woods.
Hodas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ESPN on Wednesday. Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Monday’s complaint is the second legal filing Herman has filed in the past five months.
According to documents obtained by ABC News, Herman sued the Jupiter Island Irrevocable Homestead Trust, which technically owns Woods’ Florida home, in October. She alleges that she was tricked into taking a short vacation and that when she arrived at the airport, Woods’ agents “told her that she had been locked out of her residence” and that she would not be allowed back.
She says she had an “oral lease” to live in the home for what the lawsuit calls “a certain period of time” and believes the damages, based on the residence’s monthly rental value, would exceed $30 million. .
Woods’ legal team filed a motion to dismiss the complaint in November, saying Herman’s claims were invalid because she was not a “tenant” of the residence under the “Residential Landlord-Tenant Act.”
Woods, 47, will skip 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 debut in 2023 at the Genesis at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. Herman, 38, was not seen with him at the tournament.
Herman’s lawyer alleged that Woods is trying to use the NDA to force Herman to keep details of their relationship private. If the judge decides that the NDA is enforceable, Herman’s attorney asked the judge to specify how it limits his ability to disclose, among other things, “his own experiences,” “experiences of family members,” “photographs and recordings of her and her family members”, “information from sources other than Respondent” and “information responsive to statements Respondent has made or published about herself or others to prove the falsehood or misleading nature of those statements.”
