Tiger Woods‘ ex-mistress Rachel Uchitel is defending herself after her boyfriend’s wife said the new couple met online in November and that he walked on his family a month later.
After exclusive DailyMail.com video showed Uchitel and married lawyer Ed Batts, 47, kissing at the Denver airport on December 13, his wife of six years, Robyn, revealed that Ed had dumped her and their three children five days before Christmas and moved from California to Florida to be with Uchitel.
Robyn told DailyMail.com in early January that Ed’s actions were ‘such a huge betrayal. The kids are devastated. He canceled the bank account and left town. I don’t know what we’re going to do.’
Now, Uchitel, 45, is hitting back against Robyn’s claims.
Rachel Uchitel (pictured) has hit back against boyfriend Ed Batts’ wife’s claims that Ed’s leaving came as a surprise and was a ‘huge betrayal’
Ed and Uchitel are pictured kissing at Denver International Airport on December 13
Robyn (right) said that she only realized that Ed (left) was leaving her on December 19
Uchitel told Page Six: ‘Robyn is publicly humiliating her estranged husband, whom she has been separated from for quite awhile, by using me as a target..
‘It’s sad that the media has yet again taken a story out of context and are trying to paint me as a mistress, when that is not the case.’
The former nightclub hostess made headlines in 2009 after it was revealed that Uchitel had had an affair with Woods, which ended his marriage to his wife of six years, Elin Nordegren.
Uchitel is set to appear in the upcoming HBO documentary, Tiger where she says she will get to show the public ‘ how I was vilified over the past decade.’
Actor David Boreanaz admitted in 2010 that he had had an affair with Uchitel while his wife was pregnant, after their steamy text messages emerged.
In her exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Robyn, 59, claimed he began an affair with Uchitel at the end of November after meeting her online and walked out less than a month later – leaving her heartbroken.
Ed had kept his plan to leave secret – shipping his Porsche to Florida days before his departure, with Robyn claiming he told her it was at the dealership to be repaired.
Uchitel (pictured) said Ed was Robyn’s ‘estranged husband’ and said they were separated
Uchitel and Ed have been pictured going in and out of each other’s homes in Florida. Uchitel is pictured here in Palm Beach, walking her dog. Ed lives across the street from her
Ed is pictured here in Palm Beach, walking Uchitel’s dog. Ed’s wife, Robyn, claimed that he left his family in California five days before Christmas and moved to Florida
Uchitel is pictured here with her daughter, while walking around in Palm Beach, Florida
Ed is seen here in Palm Beach, where he now lives in a rented three-bedroom town house
Court filings seen by DailyMail.com show Batts filed for divorce on December 17.
She only realized he was leaving her on December 19 when he boarded a red-eye flight to Florida and allegedly closed their family bank account – leaving her with no access to family funds.
Ed now lives in a rented three-bedroom town home across the street from Uchitel’s apartment block, although the two spend most of their time together and have been photographed repeatedly by DailyMail.com while enjoying their new life.
Batts has been pictured walking Uchitel’s dog and spending time with her eight-year-old daughter Wyatt, as well as getting to know the area with a visit to a local CVS pharmacy. The new couple have been photographed repeatedly dipping in and out of each other’s homes.
Robyn said of the ‘huge betrayal’ that the kids – who were from a previous relationship she’d had – ‘didn’t want gifts and they didn’t want friends coming around to support us – they just wanted their dad at Christmas.’
Robyn said that Ed’s departure ‘came out of nowhere so I’m still in shock. I’m really still in shock. He’s down there spending it large with Rachel.’
Robyn was newly widowed when she met Ed in 2012. Then living in Colorado, she had three small children and was swept off her feet by the now 47-year-old.
Less than a year later, Ed asked her to move in with him in San Diego.
The couple later bought a five-bedroom $5.5million Spanish-style property where they have lived since their 2014 wedding.
Uchitel (pictured left in 2007 and right in 2011) made headlines in 2009 after it was revealed that she was golfer Tiger Woods’ mistress
Uchitel’s affair with Tiger Woods (right) contributed to he collapse of his marriage to Elin Nordegren (left) ended. Woods and Nordegren are pictured in 2006
Uchitel will be appearing in the HBO documentary, Tiger, where she talks about her affair with Woods. Woods and Nordegren are pictured in 2009, the year Uchitel had her affair with him
According to Robyn, he was also willing to be a father to her children, now aged 20, 15 and 14, who barely knew their biological dad due to his untimely death from cancer.
She says she had no idea that anything was wrong with her marriage until she noticed Ed becoming cold and aloof around Thanksgiving.
The mother-of-three said: ‘I noticed he was treating us badly. Angry. Didn’t have any time for us. At Thanksgiving, I noticed he couldn’t wait to get up from the table.
‘Then on December 5, we all went to get a Christmas tree together and we spent two days doing decorations. He didn’t seem very interested in it.’
Robyn believed it was around then that he met Uchitel.
Robyn said Uchitel began speaking regularly on the phone with Ed beginning December 5 – some of which she overheard.
He told her Uchitel was nothing more than a college friend and nothing to worry about but on December 10, Ed left for a weekend away.
The corporate lawyer, who works for Palo Alto law firm Gibson and Dunn, told his wife and children that he was planning a peaceful weekend alone in the Midwest, Robyn said.
But he had other plans: instead, he traveled to Jackson Hole for a weekend with Uchitel – meeting her at Denver airport before traveling on together.
A hotel receipt seen by DailyMail.com shows how Ed splashed out $1,234 on dinners for Uchitel during their weekend at the five-star Amangani resort, as well as buying her Tampax and a hairbrush.
After returning home to San Diego, Ed continued to speak to Uchitel up to 10 times a day, according to Robyn.
On December 18, he shipped his car to Florida. The next day, after finally telling his family of his plans, Ed followed on a red-eye flight.
Robyn said: ‘He talked to my kids – my daughter was really upset. She’s 14. Then he left on the red-eye.
‘He said that he needed some time to think and he wasn’t sure he wanted to stay married. It was kind of like a 50-50 thing for him.
‘He said that Rachel was just a friend and she had nothing to do with anything. He was not going to see her and she was just a friend. After he left, I found out he was with Rachel.’
Devastated Robyn said this is the end of her marriage to Ed.
Of Uchitel, she was scathing, saying: ‘I just have no words for someone like that. People like that don’t change. I don’t want to stoop to her level.
‘I just don’t believe that women should mess with married men and she’s constantly doing it.’
Both Batts and Uchitel denied they were dating to DailyMail.com. Batts also denied that he moved to Florida to be with Uchitel.
But on Sunday, Uchitel, who used to own a children’s boutique named after her daughter in New York City, was seen getting out of Batts’ distinctive Porsche Cayenne SUV outside her home.
Uchitel will appear in the upcoming HBO documentary Tiger, which airs on January 10 and January 17, where she discusses her affair with the golfer.
‘Here he was, in my bed, and he was my Tiger,’ she says in the trailer.
The 45-year-old added: ‘After all this stuff that has out about the scandal, I felt that at some point, I needed to remove the shackles of what it’s like not to have a voice […] I don’t think people really get that.’
