DUBLIN (AFP) - The wife of US golfer Tiger Woods settled a libel action in the Irish High Court on Friday against a Dublin magazine which published a nude picture of a woman claiming it was her.
In a statement Elin Nordegren Woods said the Dubliner Magazine and its publisher Trevor White had apologised "unreservedly, completely, and unequivocally" to her.
It also agreed to pay her substantial damages -- which RTE state radio said was 125,000 euros (183,000 dollars) -- and a contribution towards her legal costs.
She will donate the award to cancer support charities in memory of the late Heather Clarke, wife of Irish golfer Darren Clarke who died from breast cancer.
The Dubliner article was published in its September 2006 issue when Woods was in Ireland attending the Ryder Cup in which her husband was playing on behalf of the United States.
Her statement described the article as "cheap, tasteless, and deliberately offensive. It was also completely untrue."
"We are delighted at todays outcome and relieved that we may now put the experience behind us.
"The false and deeply offensive article in The Dubliner magazine, with the accompanying photograph of another woman wrongly claimed to be me, caused great personal distress to me and my family.
"This regrettable episode in our lives in no way detracts from the great love of Ireland that Tiger and I share. We look forward to experiencing the extraordinary warmth of its people and of our many friends in Ireland again in the future," she said.
In the apology RTE said the magazine said it was particularly shameful that the article was published at a time when she, like thousands of others, was a guest in Ireland and when international media attention was focused on the event.
There is and was no excuse for the story and it was a cheap vulgar lie.
The magazine said rudimentary checks should have meant it was not written and basic decency ought to have prevented it being published.
