In this magazine cover image released by US Weekly Magazine,
the Dec. 14, 2009 issue of "US Weekly" featuring Tiger Woods,
is shown. The issue was available nationwide on newsstands
on Friday, Dec. 4. (AP Photo/US Weekly)
Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren Woods have got tongues wagging all over the Internet—the latest mistress count is believed to be as high as ten. What that will do as far as the now-famous prenuptial is concerned (in Texas, it’s known as a ‘premarital agreement’), and more importantly, child custody of their two children Sam and Charlie, remains to be seen. Elin Nordegren, 29, has reportedly left the mansion she shares with Tiger and is thought to have purchased a mansion in her native Sweden – will she take hefty parting gifts with her, and who will get the kids should they divorce?
In all states, and in Florida where the Woods live, a prenup is a premarital contract. And, sorry to disappoint the naturally inquisitive, they are not a matter of public record.
There has been wide speculation, however, and reports that former Swedish model Elin Nordegren, she of mysterious Tiger Woods’ car crash brouhaha, was purportedly offered a renegotiation of said contract of several more million to stay in the marriage, or at least stay in the house. Details have put the numbers somewhere as high as an immediate $5 million payout to an account she alone controls, and as much as $55 million more to stay with him for two more years.
Prenuptials, or premarital contracts, are just that: Contracts. They are governed by contract law, which is part statutory, and part case law. Contracts are most often held up in courts, provided they were legally executed and conform to established contract law recognized by the courts and the UCC. Additionally, courts are reluctant to change the details of contracts, believing instead in the notion that we should be free to contract how we choose, even when that choice is a dumb one, provided the contract does not contain any illegal or “unconscionable” clauses. (For a free online treatise on contracts, see A Treatise On The Law Of Contracts | by William W. Story.)
Reports also are detailing a behavioral component the their prenup: Elin Woods must "be a dutiful wife in showing up with him at social events and in public as if they were still the perfect couple, and sign a nondisclosure form that will prevent her from ever telling her story."
What a prenup cannot do, however, is dictate a child custody agreement. The Woods have two children: Sam and Charlie. It certainly is overriding what happens to them should their famous parents divorce. Media appears concerned mostly with how much money Elin will get, but what about those children? In Florida, there is no presumption of maternal custody. Either parent can get custody. The Florida courts, like most if not all state family law courts in the United States (family law is largely ruled by state law), abide by the "what’s in the best interest of the child" standard.
As for what would happen if Woods and Nordegren divorce, CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom has been quoted as saying that Nordegren's chances for keeping the couple's two children would be a "slam dunk." Bloom adds that, "She [Nordegren] would get custody of those kids, she would be entitled to a very substantial amount of child support, notwithstanding any pre-nup, and she would be entitled to take those kids to her place of residence, even if that was Sweden.”
Meantime, looks like that pre-nuptial will be put to the test. Tiger’s wife, Elin Nordegren, has reportedly moved out of the home they share together in the über-upscale Florida town of Windermere.
And perhaps most dramatically in other news Tuesday morning, early reports are saying an unidentified woman was transported from the Woods' home via ambulance on "advanced life support," according to a CBS local affiliate in Florida. The Woods drama continues, prenup or not.
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Other sports star's legal woes: Will fallen sprinter and federal ex-con Marion Jones get a second chance in the WNBA? (With video)
For more info: Rescue call from Woods’ mansion early on December 8, 2009
Prenuptial Agreements . org
Child custody in Florida
MSN Money: Prenups
For a little comic relief of an otherwise very serious situation, see recent SNL skit below:
Comments
The higher you rise, the harder you fall.
Good thing he had a prenup. He'll only be out a few million!
LOVE the SNL skit!! LOL
Tiger WOODIE strikes again
I wonder what will happen to his reputation once this dies down a bit.
Tigers childhood hero/rollmodel must have been Bill Clinton!
GunOwner haha! But did you hear the one about his big putter??
Had he married the woman he loved, instead of the woman who kissed up to his MOTHER(as is the rule the mother's culture of origin), NONE of this would have happened & he'd be happy right now. Notice, too, that HE is the one who's usually holding or carrying their kids when they're out together. She never cared about him or their kids. She's in it for the money-period. Learn the lesson. DON'T MARRY "THE HELP"!!! Janet & JLo learned that lesson the hard way, too, as have countless others.
I'll bet any amount of money that the woman or women w/ whom Tiger has had affairs look a lot like the woman he was going to marry back then.
Giving her more money shows that he has no backbone. He's a great athlete & businessman, but, SOMEONE should had shown him how to stand up for himself in his personal life, too.
He's standing up alright! <snicker>
If you're in Ontario or Alberta, you can download a prenuptial agreement here: http://www.dynamiclawyers.com
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