One of Tiger Woods’ alleged mistresses, Cori Rist, says she feels remorse for allegedly sleeping with the golfing superstar.
“I’m sorry for her pain. I hate that I’m a part of it,” the 31-year-old Rist said during an interview on NBC’s the “Today” show on Monday, referring to Woods’ wife, Elin Nordegren. “I had no idea it would be like this. I can only imagine the pain she’s feeling now, and I’m sorry.”
Rist claims to have met Woods in June of 2006 at a nightclub in New York after a member of the golfer’s entourage approached her.
“A guy just approached me and said, ‘Tiger Woods would like to meet you, and would you like to join us for a drink?’ At the time there was nowhere else to sit, so we went over. He immediately told me a joke, broke the ice. It was very comfortable. He was funny, polite, and that just started the evening,” she said during the interview.
Rist claims the alleged relationship with Woods continued for the next six months in various locations in New York, including private residences and hotels.
“It was a long-distance relationship,” Rist told “Today’s” Natalie Morales. “Sometimes once a month, sometimes twice, sometimes not at all.”
Rist claims she attempted to end the alleged relationship after seeing a photo of Woods with Elin and their daughter, Sam.
“We were pretty much involved in a relationship, and then I decided that I didn’t want to be part of it anymore, and I broke things off with him six months later after I met him,” Rist said, but added that Woods allegedly did not want it to end. “He kept pursuing me for the next two and a half years, and we saw each other, but less often. During the first six months, I’d see him twice a month.”
Rist claims that Woods said his marriage was on the rocks.
“I understood that things were very difficult at home, not what we thought they were on TV,” she said during Monday’s interview. “According to him, things were rough and they were going to separate. He said, ‘We’re on the outs,’ but she was pregnant, and they had to get through that.”
Rist claims that Woods employed a slew of people and tactics when it came to keeping their alleged relationship under wraps.
“He was good. He had people doing things for him,” she explained. “A lot of people would book his itineraries for myself, he’d get me a second room, we’d have a conjoined door and that was it. It was under an alias name … He would just tell me, ‘This is your room number, it’s under this name.’ I’d go to my room, he’d open the middle door, and we’d have two rooms.”
The 31-year-old mother denied reports that she was an escort.
“I felt it was necessary to defend myself because I’m hearing negative reports; they’re not true,” Rist said. “I’m not an escort, he has not paid me, I’m a mother. At the end of the day, I made a mistake, but I’m not what they’re claiming that I am. So I will defend myself because I have no other choice.”
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