Tiger Woods has a surprising BFF: His ex-wife Elin Nordegren.
On Thursday night, Woods paid a visit to the “Late Show,” where host Stephen Colbert got a little personal about the golf pro’s private life.
“You told Time magazine less than a year ago that she is one of your best friends. How is that possible? Keeping your ex-wife your best friend, given how that ended, my friend,” Colbert sly asked the sports superstar. “That’s more impressive than being 11-time PGA Player of the Year. Honest to God, how do you do that? How did you guys work that out?”
Woods ― who divorced Nordegren in 2010 after his numerous infidelities came to light ― responded with a laugh and a really great explanation.
“It becomes two simple things, OK? We have Sam and we have Charlie. And we love them so much that we are going to whatever it takes to make that work. That’s how it happened,” he said to audience applause.
“She’s been one of my best friends and I’ve talked to her about so many different things and she does the same thing with me back and forth,” he explained. “We communicate so much better now, it’s incredible. I wish we would have done that earlier on, but it’s been incredible to have a best friend like that.”
In the same Time magazine interview Colbert mentioned, Woods said he’s “taken the initiative” with his kids and told them that he and their mom aren’t together anymore because “Daddy made some mistakes.”
“I just want them to understand before they get to internet age and they log on to something or have their friends tell them something,” he told Time. “I want it to come from me so that when they come of age, I’ll just tell them the real story.”
And though famously private, Nordegren has talked a bit about the exes’ co-parenting relationship as well.
“My relationship with Tiger is centered around our children and we are doing really good — we really are — and I am so happy that this is the case,” the former model told People magazine in 2014. “He is a great father.”
Well played, Tiger.
