Tiger Woods' Mistresses Deserve an Apology, Too

Lingerie model Loredana Jolie Ferriolo (also known as Mistress #10) told The New York Post, "He didn't mention anything about the girls [he had trysts with]. It seems like he was just brushing it off and not getting into it. I think he should've mentioned something in regards to the girls -- an apology or something."

Former porn star Joslyn James, through her celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, denounced the apology, saying, "They [the mistresses] want more from the greatest golfer in the world: a face-to-face 'I'm sorry.'"

Watching with 'E! News' Ken Baker, Vegas cocktail waitress Jamie Jungers called the apology "crap." "He's apologizing to these young kids ... everybody but the women that were involved in the relationships," Jungers said. "It's hurtful. It's rude. He should have apologized to the people like myself, his mistresses, because we're dealing with a lot of stuff too."

Psychologist Cooper Lawrence argues that Tiger shouldn't apologize to the mistresses because that's not what a man does when he is trying to reconcile with his wife.

"When you want to save a marriage you have to disengage from your former lovers in every single way. An apology implies he isn't moving past them and will indicate to Elin that she isn't special. You do not apologize to mistresses if you want your wife back," Lawrence says.

If Tiger wanted to maintain a healthy marriage, he shouldn't have cheated with more than a baker's dozen of women in the first place. Now he should do what is right and make amends to everyone he hurt, not just the people that the media believe "deserve" his apologies.

It may be easy to dismiss these women as home wreckers who knew what they were getting into when they started sleeping with a married man, but that would just be transferring the blame away from the person who was breaking vows he made before church and state. We have no idea what Mr. Woods said to these women to get them into the sack, but we shouldn't discount his charm and ability to manipulate them. He did, after all, manipulate most of America into thinking he was a pretty straight-up guy.

Allred alleges that her client was led to believe that she was the only woman in Tiger's life besides his wife. James added that Tiger pursued her. "Over time, I fell in love with him, and he told me he loved me too," the former porn star said. Mistress #2, Jaimee Grubbs, has also said that she was very upset when she found out about Mistress #1, Rachel Uchitel (not to mention Mistresses 3-14).

Since not even the media hounds had an inkling that there was anyone except Elin in Tiger's bed, why should his mistresses have been suspicious of his motives?

Judge Jeanine Pirro attacked Allred's apology argument on Fox News over the weekend by holding up a list of the porn films Joslyn James has starred in.

That's just discrimination.

To say these women don't deserve an apology because they work in an industry that some people look down upon is unfair. Would the women have deserved an apology if they had been kindergarten teachers and librarians instead of porn stars and lingerie models? The only thing we can learn from this group of ladies and their collective careers is that Tiger has a type, but we shouldn't be discounting the women's feelings based on that.

Beyond the fact that apologizing is just the right thing to do, it also would have been the smart thing to do. Keeping the flock of mistresses happy is a winning strategy for Camp Tiger because the more slighted these women feel, the more outspoken they are apt to be about his dirty deeds.

"Personally I think he should have apologized, but it would of had to been done in a very calculated way that he could overshadow with something else so as not to insult his wife in the process," says marketing and branding expert Erik Mason, CEO of DEW Communications. "Something along the lines of: 'It will be a long and painful road to showing that none of you ever deserved and that it will never happen again, but it's a road I want to take because you are all worthwhile for me to put that effort into it.'"

Call them what you will. The mistresses may very well be fame-seeking, gold-digging harpies, or they may be vulnerable women caught up in the web of lies of a famous and powerful man. Either way, it doesn't mean they aren't human and weren't hurt by Tiger's actions. Omitting the other women caught up in his scandal goes to show that Tiger isn't genuinely sorry for hurting anyone. He is just sorry he got caught.

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