Elin Nordegren breaks silence with People magazine interview

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Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?

Actually, there are several behavioural options - some angelic, others career-enhancing - open to the modern woman whose husband admits to a zipper problem.

Consider the pantheon of famous aggrieved wives: from the political (Veronica Lario, the estranged wife of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; Elizabeth Edwards, separated spouse of John Edwards, former senator and Democratic presidential hopeful; Silda Spitzer, wife of Eliot Spitzer, disgraced former governor of New York and CNN host) to the celebrity (Jennifer Aniston; Sandra Bullock) and the suburban (hello, Lorena Bobbitt).

Yesterday, it was announced that Elin Nordegren has broken her nine-month silence in the wake of the sex scandal involving her estranged husband, Tiger Woods, by granting an exclusive interview to People magazine. Over the course of four days (and for a total of 19 hours, we're informed), she told her side of the story.

Give her credit for shrewd timing. A day earlier, news broke that the couple had reached a divorce settlement - worth a rumoured $750-million, which, if true, makes it the biggest payout in celebrity splits. But lest we think that the Swedish former nanny is planning a shopping-as-therapy spree, along comes a graceful interview about her attempts to "heal." She and her public relations team approached People magazine, who are milking the opportunity for all its worth - declining to make the full story available online until Friday when it hits newsstands.

The settlement reportedly includes an agreement that she not speak publicly about the golf legend's multiple affairs but clearly she was granted permission to reframe public perception of her in what is said to be a first-and-last interview. Who knows? Maybe her lawyers negotiated away several more million in divorce loot in order for her to have her one, sweet public say.

Snow White she still is, with an almost make-up-free face and golden locks on the cover, the antithesis of the louche-looking Vegas party girls who were Mr. Woods's favoured lovers. "There was never any violence inside or outside our home," she says in repudiation of speculation that she hit him with a golf club. A student of psychology, she excels in textbook babble about how "forgiveness … is the last step in the grieving process." She was a wife who believed in her marriage and was "so embarrassed that I never suspected [his affairs]- not a one."

Is she out for his, um, golf balls? It would appear that the answer is no. She is simply setting the record straight and re-establishing her image as the private mother of two, who mentions the divorce settlement (without giving a figure) only in the context of how it enables her to concentrate on her family. The story reportedly opens with a scene in which Mr. Woods arrives at her home with their daughter, 3, and son, 19 months, after a visit. A surprise drop-in? Or a little bit of theatre for the reporter? (Pardon the cynicism, but it shouldn't be discounted that Mr. Woods, notorious for wanting to control the image of his private life, had a hand in the story.)

Ms. Nordegren also released never-seen-before domestic photographs. Hole in one!

The divorce-happy world of media outlets and celebrity tell-all books gives a scorned wife many seemingly hard-to-resist options. Some use the pulpit to save their marriages. Hillary Clinton made it clear that she believed in her husband (and arguably, their jointly stellar futures) despite his Bimbo eruptions. Elizabeth Edwards came out fighting - at first, that is - after news of the husband's infidelity. She wrote a memoir, Resilience, about her strength when faced with hardships and went on Oprah to talk about how her boyish-looking man was stalked by Rielle Hunter, the freelance videographer, who accosted him with the words, "You are so hot." But when he finally admitted to being the father of Ms. Hunter's child, she filed for divorce. She had married a "marvelous" man, she said on NBC's Today Show earlier this year. But "he changed over time."

It's the old Mother-Theresa-Wife shtick. Always full of forbearance for the wandering husband, she's like a much-aggrieved mother who has suffered through one too many of little Johnny's embarrassing shenanigans. She loves him still, of course, but he has to find his own way now because she's fed up with covering for him. Jenny Sanford, ex of Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina, took the same tack. The philandering politician has only God to answer to now, the mother of four suggested in her memoir, Staying True, about her decision to live by her decision to divorce.

Celebrities, naturally, use the opportunity to increase their fame quotient. B-list Canadian celebrity, Mary Jo Eustace, fought for her share of the spotlight after her ex, Dean McDermott, (also a B-list Canadian actor) ran off with Hollywood princess and reality-show star Tori Spelling. The question, in the end, was who - between the three of them - looked the most egregiously fame-obsessed. Sandra Bullock has used her ex's infidelity to further cement her image as the sweet American everywoman who never seems to get the man she deserves. So has Jennifer Aniston.

Then, of course, there's the luscious Veronica Lario, who comes from the Italian school of large appetites for pasta, wine, love and revenge. Now separated from Mr. Berlusconi, the fifty-something beauty had put up with his roving eye for years, but when she discovered that he had attended the 18th birthday party of Botticelli model, Noemi Letizia, she lashed out in print, saying she was disgusted about his attendance "because he never came to the 18th of any of his children, even though he was invited."

In several, subsequent interviews, she excoriated him for his "impudence and shamelessness of power."

Still, there is one similarity among the women, despite their different approaches.

She rarely finds fault with herself.

Women who spoke out after their husband's affairs

Elin Nordegren

What: Grants exclusive interview to People magazine, the most credible of the gossip rags, which appears the week of her divorce from golf giant, Tiger Woods, as a result of his multiple affairs.

Best shot: "I've been through hell … it's hard to think that you have this life and then all of a sudden - was it a lie? You're struggling because it wasn't real. But I survived. It was hard, but it didn't kill me."

Jennifer Anniston

What: Breaks silence to Vogue, the Bible of style, about Angelina Jolie's belated admission that her love affair with Ms. Anniston's husband, Brad Pitt, started while they were shooting the movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which they had previously denied.

Best shot: "I felt those details were a little inappropriate to discuss … That was really uncool."

Dorothy Joudrie, ex-wife of Earl Joudrie, chairman of Canadian Tire Corporation and Algoma Steel

What: Shot her estranged husband six times, leaving him in a pool of his own blood on the garage floor of her Calgary home while she went back inside to freshen up her double Seagram's VO on the rocks.

Best shot: see above.

Mary Jo Eustace, Canadian TV host and ex-wife of Dean McDermott.

What: Ups her own celebrity quotient - or attempts to - by writing a book, Divorce Sucks, about how her husband left her and their two children for Hollywood princess, Tori Spelling, after he fell in love with her on the set of a movie.

Best Shot: Provides trashy tabloids with more trash about her ex-husband and his new wife. About her first meeting with Ms. Spelling: "I tried to explain that we were a real family, with a new baby and a substantial history, and there were serious consequences to all this … The toughest moment was when my husband kept calling her to see how the meeting was going. She told him it was 'going well' and joked that we were quickly becoming 'soul makes.' I left the room on that one."

Silda Spitzer

What: Stands by her husband, former governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, as he resigns from his job and admits to involvement with prostitutes.

Best shot: None. Expression of utter weariness does all the talking.

Elizabeth Edwards

What: Plays the all-suffering Good Wife and tries to protect her marriage by writing a memoir, Resilience, about her ability to withstand all of life's challenges, including stage-four cancer, the death of her son, Wade, and the infidelity of her husband, John Edwards, former senator and Democratic presidential candidate, with Rielle Hunter, freelance videographer.

Best shot: "I lie in bed, circles under my eyes, my sparse hair sticking in too many directions, and he looks at me as if I am the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. It matters."

Hillary Clinton

What: In 1992, goes on 60 Minutes, the most respected investigative television show, with her husband, then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, to help shore up his presidential bid amid allegations of marital infidelity with Gennifer Flowers.

Best shot: "You know, I'm not sitting here - some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette. I'm sitting here because I love him, and I respect him, and I honor what he's been through and what we've been through together."

Jenny Sanford

What: Writes a holier-than-thou memoir, Staying True, about her decision to leave her husband of 20 years, Mark Sanford, the Governor of South Carolina, who became embroiled in a sex scandal in 2009 after it was revealed he was visiting his Argentinean lover, Maria Belen Chapur, when he said he was hiking the Appalachian trail.

Best shot: "Mark had become so self-absorbed that he was lost. He had become so focused on his will and his desire that he was blinded to his actions and their consequences in a connected world."