Rachel Uchitel Speaks: “I Don’t Appreciate My Name Being Dragged Through the Mud”

Rachel Uchitel is an accomplished nightclub VIP operations manager who's gotten rather famous, rather suddenly. In a bombshell National Enquirer story that's yet to appear online, a young lady from Las Vegas named Ashley Samson alleges that Uchitel, a friend of hers, has been enjoying a months-long affair with decidedly married pro golfer Tiger Woods; tabloids even speculate that Woods' car accident this morning occurred after he fought with wife Elin Nordegren over the revelations. The media's going nuts over the scandal, so we called Uchitel and asked for her side of the story. "I've had better days," she began.

On the merits, it seems a little implausible that someone who makes a living serving the nightlife needs of celebs (see her VIP lowdown on New York’s Griffin lounge) would be so comically indiscreet. For now, Uchitel is keeping more mum than she could be on the advice of counsel, but she did have a few choice points to make:

● “I don’t appreciate my name or what people think of me being dragged through the mud by people who don’t even bother to research what or who they’re talking about ... they should research who these stories are coming from, who they’re believing as a credible source. Not to mention that it’s in the National Enquirer.”
● “I totally deny the Enquirer story. They did contact me about it, but they didn’t use any of my quotes or any of the information I gave them. They make it sound like I said those things, but it’s all other people saying I said things.”
● On the story’s report that she followed Woods to Australia and was observed checking into his hotel and riding the elevator to the 35th floor, where Woods had a suite: “There’s just no possible way I could have done that. You can’t just walk into a place like that and ride the elevator to a floor with someone like Tiger Woods on it without someone seeing you and stopping you.”
● On allegedly sending racy text messages to Woods: “If you talked to any of my old boyfriends, and I’m sure they all hate me, but they’d all confirm that I don’t sex-message. I don’t do it, I don’t know how to do it.”
● On Ashley Samson, the “close friend” of Uchitel’s who provided all the information to the Enquirer, along with another unnamed source, both of whom supposedly “passed” a polygraph: “I’ve met her twice in my life. We’re not friends. I’m just speculating but it seems like someone else is telling her what to say or manipulating her. After all, she got $25,000 for this.”

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