Tiger Woods’former mistress Rachel Uchitel is opening up about her decision to share her story in the upcomingdocumentaryabout the golfer on HBO.
In a recent interview withExtra, Uchitel — the woman who was at the forefront of Woods'2009 sex scandal— revealed why it was important for her to finally speak out after spending years “under the shame of what’s been going on.”
“I have been silent for over a decade now, and I felt that it was really important to me to speak only once in my life because I have spent all these years letting people think what they want to think and say what they want to say,” she told the outlet. “I needed to take the shackles off and be able to tell my story for me.”
Uchitel, 45, said it was time to “set the record straight on what happened” as she believes that “one moment doesn’t define your life.”
“I don’t like to be branded as a mistress. I don’t like to be branded as a homewrecker — that’s not who I am,” she told the outlet. “I’m a 45-year-old woman. I made one wrong turn 10 years ago … I didn’t throw somebody down the stairs. I didn’t kill someone. I made a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes.”
Rachel Huchitel.HBO
In 2009, dozens of women came forward alleging that they had sexual relationships with the then-married golfer. A divorce from his then-wife,Elin Nordegren, soon followed, and Woods' career suffered for the decade that followed.
Uchitel admitted that she has not been able to escape the aftermath of the scandal ever since.
Tiger Woods (L); Rachel Uchitel.
“The whole thing has made my life a living hell for the last 10 years,” she toldExtra, adding, “I made a bad decision. And I regret it, and I’m embarrassed about it …”
She said she hopes her appearance in the documentary will help people further understand her side of the story and “maybe look inside themselves and realize that maybe they’ve made a mistake like that.”
“I would just hope that maybe at this point, now that everybody knows my name, they might just maybe want to believe me a little bit,” Uchitel said in the interview. “That I’m not that awful of a person and they could maybe give me a chance this time around.”
On Sunday, HBO will air the first half of the new two-part documentary,Tiger,which will focus on “the rise, fall, and epic comeback” of the 45-year-old star athlete. Uchitel mostly appears in the film’s second part.
Back in 2019,a source close to Woods told PEOPLEthat the athlete and father of two is “a completely different person than he was in 2009.”
“He was an overgrown boy back then. Now he’s a man.”
Tigerpremieres on Jan. 10 and concludes on Jan. 17. Both 90-minute episodes, airing at 9 p.m. ET, will be available to watch onHBO and HBO Max.
source: people.com
