An emotional Tiger Woods apologized for his “irresponsible and selfish behavior” as the golf superstar broke his silence on the sex scandal that engulfed him last year.
In an honest self-assessment broadcast live around the world on Friday, the 34-year-old admitted to a string of infidelities and confirmed he had been undergoing treatment at a rehabilitation center for 45 days.
After repeatedly apologizing to family, friends and fans during his 13-minute address, however, Woods did not confirm when he would return to golf, saying only that it would be “one day,” possibly this year.
PHOTO: EPA
“I want to say to each of you simply and directly: I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in,” Woods told a hand-picked audience of friends and journalists at the USPGA Tour Headquarters in Florida.
“I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable and I am the only person to blame,” said a humbled Woods, at times staring directly into the camera during his blunt admissions of wrongdoing. “For all that I have done, I am so sorry. I have a lot to atone for.”
Woods’ squeaky-clean image was left in tatters last year after a mysterious late-night car crash outside his home in Florida was followed by a string of lurid revelations about his personal life.
More than a dozen women were linked to the billionaire sports star in the weeks following the car crash. Woods later admitted “transgressions,” but had not been seen or spoken in public until this week.
On Friday, he emerged before a spellbound US for the biggest televised mea culpa since then-US president Bill Clinton admitted an “inappropriate” relationship with Monica Lewinsky in 1998.
Friday’s apology even affected financial markets as Wall Street dealers halted trading to watch television screens.
“It’s hard to admit that I need help, but I do,” Woods said. “For 45 days from the end of December to early February, I was in in-patient therapy receiving guidance for the issues I’m facing. I have a long way to go, but I’ve taken my first steps in the right direction.”
“I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in,” he said. “I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. I was wrong, I was foolish. I don’t get to play by different rules.”
Woods also used the occasion to scotch reports that his wife Elin physically attacked him during the incident on Nov. 27 that triggered the scandal.
“It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that,” Woods said. “Elin never hit me that night or any other night.”
Woods also kept fans guessing about when he may return to the sport following his self-imposed exile.
“I do plan to return to golf one day. I just don’t know when that day will be,” Woods said. “I don’t rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game.”
Woods said he had begun to re-embrace Buddhism to help his rehabilitation, saying he had been schooled in the faith as a youngster by his Thai mother.
“Obviously I lost track of what I was taught,” Woods said.
Reaction to Woods’ comments was mixed, with some pundits applauding as others dismissed it as a cynical exercise in media manipulation.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos described Woods’ words as “one of the most remarkable public apologies ever by a public figure.”
Rick Cerone, former chief of public relations for the New York Yankees, however, took an opposite view.
“What I saw was arrogance,” he told CNN. “It was basically an infomercial.”
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