In an exclusive interview Friday, admitted Tiger Woods mistress Jamie Jungers, 26, denied rumors that she had received any money from the famous golfer, whose once squeaky-clean image has been tarnished by a succession of women stepping forward to say they have had affairs with him.
“I didn’t even get a birthday card,” the woman who met Woods as a Las Vegas cocktail waitress told Meredith Vieira live on TODAY. “I got nothing out of this relationship but a broken heart.”
Jungers, who has worked as a lingerie model as well as a waitress, revealed details about her relationship with Woods both on TODAY and as part of a special report, “The Secret Life of Tiger Woods,” airing at 9 p.m. ET Friday on NBC’s “Dateline.”
She told Vieira that she and the 33-year-old golfing legend had what she called “a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship” during their year-and-a-half love affair, despite the fact that Tiger had just married wife Elin Nordegren when Jungers and Woods first spent a night together in early 2005.
Tarnished idol
Woods’ once-pristine image, cornerstone of his billion-dollar empire of commercial endorsements and tie-in merchandise, began unraveling early in November when the National Enquirer tabloid fingered Las Vegas VIP nightclub hostess Rachel Uchitel as an illicit lover. Scrutiny intensified after he crashed his car into a fire hydrant, then a neighbor’s tree, outside his Florida home Nov. 27, spurring rumors of a fight between him and Nordegren. Subsequently, Woods issued a statement indicating indiscretions in his marriage, while an increasing number of women have issued accounts of liaisons with him.
For her part, Jungers says she’s held her tongue for more than three years, telling Vieira, “It was just something between him and I, and I didn’t think everybody needed to know.” But, she said, she came on TODAY to “clear the air.” Alluding to reports and rumors that she had been paid for sex, she said: “I just wanted to come on national TV to say that they are not true.”