TIGER WOODS’ former mistress has revealed she ended up in prison having
become addicted to booze and drugs after her affair with the golf champ.
Jamie Jungers drank litres of vodka a day and took dozens of prescription
pills to block out abuse from angry Tiger fans and internet trolls who
threatened to throw acid in her face.
It is five years since the golfer was exposed for a string of affairs behind
the back of his wife, Elin Nordegren.
But while the multi-millionaire sporting hero got his career and love life
back on track, Jamie hit rock bottom and was even jailed for drink driving.
Last night the 31-year-old told The Sun on Sunday: “After our affair was
exposed, my life totally spiralled out of control.
“Everyone saw me as Tiger Woods’ mistress and I would get abuse all the time.
“I couldn’t cope with it. It was people on the internet, from fans of his.
“I knew I had done wrong but the abuse I got was unimaginable.
“I’d have messages saying I deserved to have acid poured on my face because of
what I did, that I broke up a marriage and was a home-wrecking whore. I was
scared.
“When I woke up the only way I could get myself to feel normal — my version of
normal — was to take shots of vodka and chase them with the sports drink
Gatorade.
“I started taking painkillers to numb my mind. I would also take the
anti-anxiety drug Xanax every two hours.
“I was drinking about a litre of vodka at a time and I just repeated that all
day long until I blacked out.
“Every time I felt my emotions coming back or had a moment of clarity, I would
hit the bottle again. I just wanted to stay intoxicated.
“To be honest, at the time I felt sorry for myself. But looking back, I feel
dreadful about what happened to his wife.
“I am a recovering addict and, as part of that recovery, I need to apologise.
I want to apologise. I’m not saying I need to do it in person but I’d like
to make amends.
“I went through a lot of pain but Elin must have too.
“In the end it was Tiger that did this to both of us.”
Jamie was working as a promotions girl who entertained high-rollers in Las
Vegas’s top clubs when she first met Tiger.
It was in 2005 and the best-paid sports star in the world had been married a
year.
Jamie says: “He got one of his VIP hosts to come over to me and try and get me
to his table.
“I said, ‘If he wants to invite me over he can ask himself because I’m already
at a party’.
I’d worked around celebrities for a long time so he was just another person.
“But he ended up getting his big entourage and coming over to where I was
partying.
“We talked and then a huge group of us got into his limo and went back to
where he was staying and we hit it off.
“Tiger and I had a lot in common. People found it hard to believe afterwards
but I genuinely just liked him as a person.
“He seemed like a nice guy — really goofy and kind of mellow. We kissed for
the first time that night and it was the start of an 18-month love affair.
“I’d talk to him at least once a day and we would meet up once a week. He
would fly me out to Chicago or to his house, his family home, in California.”
Jamie has told how she was with the star after his father Earl died.
The former US Army infantry officer, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam
and retired as a lieutenant colonel, had coached Tiger for his first years
in golf.
He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998 and survived it, but died from a
heart attack in 2006 aged 74.
Jamie says: “I was there when he was dealing with his father’s death. I felt
like I was his girlfriend, not a bit on the side.
“I knew what I was doing was wrong, that he was married.
“But also at the time I assumed his wife could have been with him if she had
wanted to and therefore I kind of didn’t feel too bad either.”
Jamie claims the relationship started to falter and she ended it, telling
Tiger their romance had no future.
Her world fell apart in November 2009 when Tiger was revealed as a love cheat
and Jamie discovered she was not the only other woman in his life.
Days after his affair with New York nightclub worker Rachel Uchitel was
exposed by an American magazine, Tiger crashed his Cadillac SUV into a fire
hydrant near his Florida home while his wife reportedly smashed in the
windows with a golf club.
The following month stories about a string of mistresses came out.
Those included Jamie, after her former fiancé Derek Schmidt told how she had
been sneaking off with the golfer.
Tiger was linked to so many women, including escorts and porn stars, he went
on to be treated for sex addiction.
He returned to the professional golf circuit after a five-month absence and
divorced Elin in 2010.
He is currently thought to be dating the professional skier Lindsey Vonn, 30.
As soon as their affair was exposed, Jamie, who lived near the Las Vegas
strip, started to get threatened by strangers passing her in the street and
on the internet.
Within a month she was prescribed anti-anxiety pills — which she believes
helped to kick off her drug and booze problems.
She said: “I went from being a nobody to everybody knowing who I was. It was a
shocking, life-changing experience and I didn’t know how to deal with it.
“For two years all I did was drink and take pills.”
Jamie has gone to rehab twice.
In 2011 she was caught drink-driving and given a community service order.
She said: “I had downed tequila shots and taken Xanax — and was driving at
50mph.
“I smashed into a van. I didn’t even see it. It was my first car accident, my
first arrest.”
But when she failed to comply with the community order in May last year, Jamie
was sent to the Clark County Detention Center in Nevada.
She said: “I ended up in jail for a month. It was scary.
“I’d never been in trouble before. I could never have imagined going to prison
before all of this.
“It was enough for me to get sober once again, get reconnected with God and
realise I needed to make a change.”
Now clean for five months, Jamie lives in a house for former addicts with two
other women.
She attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings every day and is not allowed her own
mobile phone in case she gives in to temptation.
Jamie admitted: “Because of my relationship with Tiger I lost everything. My
plans for the future, my apartment, my money.
“The last time I spoke to him I said that what had happened was too hard on
me.
“I wish the best for him, but I don’t think about him too much.”