Rachel Uchitel became a household name 15 years ago when her scandalous affair with pro-golfer Tiger Woods was exposed – leading to his messy $100 million divorce from his Swedish model wife at the time, Elin Nordegren.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Uchitel, 49, has laid bare her fears that her affair with Woods, 48, who is set to tee off in the 2024 Masters today, will follow her to the ‘grave’ – while detailing the brutal toll the scandal has taken on her love life over the years.
‘When you are in a conversation piece that big that everyone wants to talk about, it’s going to go to your grave,’ she explained, before opening up about how the fallout surrounding her affair has forever damaged her ability to ‘trust’ people.
‘Well, it’s, it’s affected my relationships, I have a very small world, I keep it that way. I don’t really trust a lot of people because what I’ve been through is something that a lot of people cannot understand.’
Tiger Woods, 48, admitted to cheating on his ex-wife Elin Nordegren, 44 (pictured in 2009 together) with dozens of women, including Rachel Uchitel, 49
Uchitel – who hosts the popular podcast Miss Understood- told DailyMail.com exclusively, ‘When you are in a conversation piece that big, it’s going to go to your grave’
Uchitel (in a photo taken after her affair with Woods was exposed) said, ‘the cheating scandal ‘affected her relationships’ – adding, ‘I don’t really trust a lot of people’
As those who follow the brunette beauty know, her rise to fame has been plagued by a series of misfortunes.
Uchitel’s father Bob died of a cocaine overdose in 1990 when she was 15.
Then, in 2001, her fiancé James O’Grady was killed in the south tower of the World Trade Center in the 9/11 attacks. A photo of a tearful Uchitel, then working as a producer at Bloomberg, clutching his picture made front pages around the world.
‘I lost my father when I was young in a tragic way. I lost my fiancée from being killed by terrorists on 9/11 and I was in one of the biggest sex scandals of all time,’ Uchitel said.
‘There is nothing ordinary about me, so I have to date extraordinary men. And I haven’t really found that.’
‘So, I am open, I want to have a witness to my life. I want to be married. I want to be in a relationship. I haven’t found that right match for me yet. And I’m always hopeful that I will, every morning when I get up. I’m like, I’ll meet him today.’
Uchitel’s world came crashing down in 2009 when her affair with Woods – who she met through their mutual friend Derek Jeter while working in Las Vegas in 2008 – was exposed.
Uchitel was photographed checking into the same hotel as Woods during the Australian Masters – pictures that then ran in the National Enquirer on November 25, 2009.
Initially, Uchitel denied having an affair to his wife. But Nordegren was unconvinced and went digging through Woods phone.
There, she found the name Jaimee Grubbs in his call log and left a message on her voicemail.
‘Who this is’, she said, ‘because you are f***ing my husband’.
‘I chose to do this podcast because it was the right trajectory for me to go. It’s been a hard 15 years of figuring out what my purpose is,’ Uchitel said
Uchitel claims signing an NDA after her affair with Woods was revealed left her unable to defend herself from public attacks and has had a lasting negative impact on her life
Nordegren scrolled through the phone a second time where she found a message Woods had sent to Uchitel. It read: ‘You are the only one I’ve ever loved.’
When Uchitel replied, a furious Nordegren called her and said: ‘I knew it was you. I know everything.’
Woken by Nordegren, Woods fled the home – pursued by Nordegren clutching one of his golf clubs – and jumped into his Cadillac Escalade SUV.
Pulling out of the driveway at 30mph, Woods crashed into a fire hydrant before smashing into a tree and winding up unconscious and bloody in the street.
The incident turbocharged the story. After a voicemail left by Woods for a mistress was published by US Weekly, more than a dozen other women then came forward to say they had also slept with the golfer.
The pro-golfer finally admitted to cheating on his wife with more than 120 women total.
Uchitel was quickly silenced by Woods when she signed an NDA in exchange for $5 million payout.
It left her unable to give her side of the story. In the following year, she was raked over in the public – at one point even being dubbed a ‘hooker’ by Joy Behar on The View. Behar later apologized.
Woods was married to Nordegren for six years before divorcing in 2010 when the blonde beauty caught him cheating with Uchitel (seen in 2002)
Uchitel was silence by Woods (pictured after winning the first round in the 2019 masters) and left unable to defend herself when she signed an NDA for a $5 million payout.
‘Listen, it’s not like I don’t know what people think of me. But I’ve spent the better part of 15 years trying to do something else that overshadows it,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘Clearly, that’s a really hard thing to come back as the other woman. You don’t get a lot of grace in that.
‘Obviously, my past is the reason that my name is in the paper, right? So that opens doors for me.
‘But at the same time, I don’t want to talk about my past, I want to have a platform to share what other people have been through because I think that brings us all together. Because feeling misunderstood is such a universal feeling,’ she added.
In March 2023, Uchitel launched her now hugely successful podcast, Miss Understood, in which she interviews high-profile people who have been caught in scandal’s like hers.
‘I chose to do this podcast because it was the right trajectory for me to go. It’s been a hard 15 years of figuring out what my purpose is when so many people have an idea or a thought of you and that is not who you feel that you are,’ Uchitel said.
‘It was very hard for me to target one person at a time. So, I chose to do a bunch of interviews and podcasts to try and get people to see that I was a person before and after. And that was more interesting.
It’s not like I don’t know what people think of me… you don’t get a lot of grace as the ‘other woman’
‘And now that I have a platform, I don’t have to be interviewed about my past about anything like that.’
Uchitel said she can relate to her guests because of her affair, which caused her to be forever labeled as Tiger Woods mistress.
‘There are so many other people that have felt misunderstood or felt that they have been reduced to a single headline or a narrative that has not captured who they are,’ she told DailyMail.com.
Uchitel recently featured comedian Kathy Griffin on her show. In 2017, Griffin’s career collapsed when she posted a video on her social media which showed her holding a mock-up severed head of President Donald Trump.
The video caused massive backlash, resulting in Griffin being fired from CNN. Griffin later apologized but it was too late.
‘I recently had Kathy Griffin on who has done a million things before the thing that she was cancelled for, which was holding the head of Donald Trump. So many people want to just harp on that or ask her about .
‘She pointed out to me that Jane Fonda, of all people, said that this will be written on my gravestone, and we laughed about that.
Rachel’s latest interview comes as Tiger is due to make his return to the Masters tournament in Augusta today
The longtime golf legend has insisted that he can win another tournament
‘But, yes, it’s true. People overlook things we’ve done before and things we do after because that is stuck in their mind. But it’s the least interesting thing about me. So, people that get to know me don’t even remember that,’ she laughed.
‘I really want Armie Hammer on my podcast. I want to hear from him,’ Uchitel stated.
Hammer, whose family owns Arm & Hammer baking soda products, was accused of sexual assault in February 2021 after his ex-girlfriend, Effie Angelova, 26, accused him of ‘violently’ raping and abusing her in 2017.
He denied the accusations of rape through his attorney and said all of his sexual encounters were ‘completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance and mutually participatory’.
Several other women came forward and accused Hammer of being interested in kinky sex and even cannibalism in the wake of Effie’s claims.
Uchitel told DailyMail.com that Hammer would be the ‘perfect’ guest on her podcast.
‘Like the media has heard all sides for sure from the women. But people have speculated and made this guy into a monster. And I don’t agree with that.
‘I don’t agree with that, that that is a way to treat someone. So, I would love to have him on my podcast,’ she said.
Prior to her massively successful podcast, which ranked in at #1 on Apple during the first week in April, the mother of one found it difficult to
At one point, she tried to reinvent herself as an ambassador for a sugar daddy site Seeking Arrangements. It failed when DailyMail.com revealed that she had a fling with a man she met on the site.
