Expert: Tiger "Hush Money" to Elin Won't Work

Tiger Woods is said to be working out a big money settlement ending his five-year marriage.

Some reports say he will pay his wife, Elin Nordegren, up to $750 million.

In return, say the reports, she'd agree not to talk in public about their marriage, and she'd get custody of their two children. He would get to see them regularly, but wouldn't be allowed to have other single women around when he does.

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On "The Early Show" Friday, prominent divorce lawyer Raoul Felder told co-anchor Harry Smith it's likely no amount of money could keep Elin's lips truly sealed.

Any number, Felder says, "is inflated, but whatever the number is, it's gonna be a huge number. But it sounds better when you say $750 million, not dollars. $750 million dollars."

Such a huge amount, Felder pointed out, doesn't "seem real to anybody. But it's hush money, and the rationalization is always, 'Well, look, you've gotta pay her so much anyway, so pay a little more for hush money.

"But it never works.

"The lady tells her sister-in-law, who tells a neighbor, who tells the hairdresser, who calls up a newspaper, she wants a ticket to a rock concert, and on and on and on, and suddenly, it's in the press."

Whatever Tiger forks over, Felder says, is "a calculated business computation. He figures he makes so much money from the endorsements, much more than from golf, and if he could keep it spinning for another three or four years, he can make back that money. And maybe he's right.

"But it never really does work.

"What you try to do is stagger the payments, but wives don't want to stagger too much.

Felder noted that Tiger and Elin had a prenuptial agreement but, "Then, when some of the bimbos came out -- I hate to use the word, but when some of the bimbos came out, they had a richer post-nup, reputedly $55 million. But he's in a bad state now, because he has this trail of bimbos. It's like a bakery - 'Take a number, take a number, next in line.' So, the only thing he can do it try to buy her quiet."

The conditions said to be in the pending pact are "kind of stupid," Felder asserted, "because what's supposed to happen? He gets married to a woman, then find out if she likes his kids? But he would have signed a laundry ticket. That's what it sounds like to me. He just wants to get out of it."

What would he advise Tiger if he were representing him? "I would tell him, 'It's gonna come out anyway. Save your money. Just have a press conference and answer some real questions, which he's never really done. get it over with and me on.

"America loves second lives. If President Nixon had a second life - you could go all through history."