Elin Nordegren, the blond Swedish beauty who reportedly lashed out at her allegedly cheating husband, golf superstar Tiger Woods, has been called a stable, humble person and a perfect wife for a high-profile professional athlete.
The scorned Swede, according to various reports, attacked Woods, 33, for hooking up with Manhattan party girl Rachel Uchitel, 34.
The man who brought the pair together, Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet “they are a perfect match,” when their relationship was revealed in 2002.
Woods was coming off a break-up with another woman, Joanna Jagoda, and Parnevik told Britain’s Daily Mail that “Elin is exactly what Tiger needs to get stability in his life. She is mature for her age, humble, and has both feet on the ground.”
Parnevik could not be reached and his wife, Mia, who brought Nordegren to the United States as an au pair for the couple’s children, refused to talk to the Herald.
Nordegren had such a prediliction for privacy that one golf source dubbed her the “Greta Garbo” of the links in a 2004 profile.
Nordegren was born on New Year’s Day in 1980 in Sweden, to Barbro Holmberg, a government minister, and Thomas Nordegren, a respected journalist.
In 1999, Nordegren was discovered by a Swedish fashion photographer, and for a time worked as a swimsuit model.
Nordegren left modeling to pursue studies in child psychology, but during her freshman year in 2001 she met Parnevik’s wife, who subsequently brought her to America.
Woods reportedly begged his buddy Parnevik to set him up with Nordegren, and by 2002 a romance was in full bloom. Two years later, Nordegren and Woods were married in a $1.5 million fairy tale wedding in Barbados. They since have had two children, daughter Sam, 2, and son Charlie, 9 months.
