Elin Nordegren has spoken for the first time since her split from Tiger Woods, and she says she had no idea about the golfer's multiple affairs.
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Speaking to People magazine, Swedish model Elin, 30, said she felt 'blindsided' and 'embarrassed' when she found out about Woods' infidelities - especially when the whole world soon found out about her private life.
She said: 'I never suspected, not a one. For the last three-and-a-half years, when all this was going on, I was home a lot more with pregnancies, then the children and my school.'
Elin added that she and Woods tried to work through their marital problems, but in the end they had to agree to split.
Speaking about the parade of women who claimed to have had affairs with her husband, she said: 'I felt stupid as more things were revealed. How could I not have known anything? The word "betrayal" isn't strong enough. I felt like my whole world had fallen apart.
'I felt embarrassed for having been so deceived. I felt betrayed by many people around me. Initially, I thought we had a chance, and we tried really hard.'
In what she described as her first and last interview, Elin, whose divorce from Woods was finalised yesterday, also said she has started to come to terms with her situation.
She said: 'I have been through the stages of disbelief and shock, to anger and ultimately grief over the loss of the family I so badly wanted for my children.
'I also feel stronger than I ever have. I have confidence in my beliefs, my decisions and myself.'
In the People interview Nordegren denied that she and Woods had been fighting on the night he crashed his car outside their Florida home.
She emphatically denied hitting Woods with a golf club or chasing after him before he crashed his Lincoln Escalade 4x4.
'There was never any violence inside or outside our home,' she said.
'The speculation that I would have used a golf club to hit him is just truly ridiculous.'
The car crash led to the stories of his multiple affairs being made public by his many mistresses.
Nordegren did not reveal how much her divorce settlement was worth but tellingly added: 'Money doesn't make you happy. ... But I have to be honest: It is making some things easier. I have the opportunity to be with my children as much as I want.'
She also credits her children, three-year-old Sam and 19-month-old Charlie, with getting her through the past nine months.
'Just having them around, hugging me, kissing me, gives me the strength to get through every day," she said.
