Wash Po-Tiger Woods's Ex-Wife Breaks Her Silence

Elin Nordegren: People Magazine cover/Washington Post

(Story reported by Cindy Boren for "The Early Lead" in the Washington Post)

Tiger Woods' ex-wife Elin Nordegren: 'I've been through hell'

Finally, the voice of Elin Nordegren is heard.

Nordegren, who maintained her silence through the finalization of her divorce from Tiger Woods on Monday, told People magazine "I've been through hell," describing her anguish and humiliation at learning of Woods' serial philandering, her decision to move forward as a single mother, and Woods' Thanksgiving 2009 car crash -- the night her marriage began to dissolve.

For openers, Nordegren, whose ex-husband has been fodder for tabloid headlines and talk-show jabs for the last nine months, professed to have had no idea that he was cheating and said she was "blindsided" by the affairs.

"I never suspected, not a one," she said. "For the last 3½ years, when all this was going on, I was home a lot more with pregnancies, then the children and my school. ...

"I felt stupid as more things were revealed -- how could I not have known anything? The word 'betrayal' isn't strong enough. 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."

The seemingly daily discovery of another dalliance was, she said, an "emotional roller coaster" that caused her hair to fall out. And there were the unflattering "Saturday Night Live" and "South Park" parodies of Woods' car crash that Nordegren admits were "pretty hysterical" -- as well as "totally untrue."

(Click here to read the full story on the Washington Post website)