Self-destructive party girl who loves married men
Grief: Rachel Uchitel makes an emotional plea as she searches for her fiance James Andrew O'Grady outside Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan on September 13, 2001 - two days after he died in the 9/11 attacks
Grief: Rachel Uchitel, accused of having an affair with Tiger Woods, searches for her fiance James Andrew O'Grady outside Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan on September 13, 2001 - two days after he died in the 9/11 attacks
The woman at the centre of the Tiger Woods infidelity allegations has a history of dating married men and celebrities.
Rachel Uchitel's life fell apart after she lost her fiancé in the September 11 terrorist attacks. She had a nervous breakdown, briefly married a childhood friend, divorced, then hit the party scene in Las Vegas.
Friends say she has become increasingly self-destructive, flitting between the Nevada gambling city and New York, where she works as a nightclub promoter.
The magazine National Enquirer published details of the alleged affair last Wednesday after reporters trailed 34-year-old Miss Uchitel to Australia and say they watched as she went up to the 35th VIP floor of a Melbourne hotel where Woods was staying.
Miss Uchitel has also been linked to married TV actor David Boreanaz. It is claimed she met Woods in June at Manhattan's Griffin nightclub, where she was working as a hostess. She denies the affair.
In 2001 she was working as a TV financial news producer and planning her marriage to bond trader Andy O'Grady when the World Trade Centre was attacked. Pictures of her with tears streaming down her face were flashed around the world.
She spent weeks plastering photographs of her fiancé all over New York in the hope someone knew what had happened to him. His remains were recovered in early 2002.
Two years later she had a nervous breakdown and took time off from her job.
She was comforted by childhood friend Steven Ehrenkranz and they married in 2004. It lasted four months.
Miss Uchitel left for Vegas, where she dated nightclub owner Jason Strauss and worked as a scantily dressed VIP hostess.
Last year she moved back to New York, juggling jobs at clubs in Manhattan and the jetset-Hamptons beach resort.
Miss Uchitel's ex-husband said he hadn't seen her since they split up. Asked about her alleged affair with Woods, he said: 'I couldn't know and I couldn't care.'
A friend who attended their wedding said Miss Uchitel had a 'history of being with married men and was self-destructive'.
Her grandfather Maurice owned Miami's Eden Roc Hotel and the El Morocco nightclub in New York. She grew up on Manhattan's smart Upper West Side, in an apartment overlooking Central Park, and attended an all-girls private school
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