Woods' former wife says she was caught unawares by his actions

Elin Nordegren, whose divorce from Tiger Woods was announced on Monday, said she never had an inkling of the golfer's infidelities.

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Elin Nordegren, whose divorce from Tiger Woods was announced on Monday, said she never had an inkling of the golfer's infidelities. She said she never hit him with a golf club. And she said she has never felt so sad and devastated, and hopes she never will again. "I've been through hell," Nordegren said in an interview with People magazine that was released two days after she and Woods were officially divorced.

"It's hard to think you have this life, and then all of a sudden - was it a lie? You're struggling because it wasn't real. But I survived. It was hard, but it didn't kill me." She has settled a mile from her former husband in a rented house in a gated community in Windermere, Florida. The couple are sharing custody of their two children. The Swedish-born Nordegren has always guarded her privacy as fiercely as Woods, if not more so. But the car crash outside the couple's Florida home in November thrust her into the public eye.

Many wondered if Nordegren had a hand in the accident, perhaps going after him in a fit of rage when she caught him. "This was one of the things I had the hardest time with people thinking," Nordegren said. "There was never any violence inside or outside our home. The speculation that I would have used a golf club to hit him is just truly ridiculous." Nordegren said she had never suspected Woods of cheating. She had not travelled much in recent years as she was busy with the couple's children and psychology classes.

"I felt stupid as more things were revealed - how could I not have known anything?" Nordegren said. "The word betrayal isn't strong enough. I felt like my whole world had fallen apart. It seemed that my world as I thought it was had never existed. I felt embarrassed for having been so deceived. I felt betrayed by many people around me." * Associated Press