Who Is Tiger Woods’ Ex-Wife? All About Elin Nordegren

Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren were married for nearly six years before their highly publicized split in 2010

Elin Nordegren is more than just Tiger Woods’ ex — she’s also his friend.

The Swedish-born former model was married to the professional golfer, with whom she shares two children, for nearly six years before they divorced in 2010 amid reports of Woods’ infidelity. Eight years later, a source told PEOPLE that the pair were co-parents and close pals.

“They’re friends now,” the source said. “Everything that happened in the past is in the past. They both decided to be adults and to do what was best for the kids. So they get along really well. Tiger says really great things about Elin. He never complains about her, ever. … The kids love them both.”

Here’s everything to know about Elin Nordegren and her marriage to golf superstar Tiger Woods.

Nordegren has an identical twin sister named Josefin. In 2010, she told PEOPLE that her parents never made them dress alike or otherwise conflated their identities; instead, they encouraged both girls to be independent.

“They rarely dressed us in the same clothes, and if they did, I always wore red and my sister always wore blue so no one would say the wrong name,” she told PEOPLE. “Everybody knew that red equals Elin and blue equals Josefin. They cut our hair differently and put my sister and me in different classes. Today I appreciate that they did that. My sister has been my best friend since the day we were born, and she is more than a best friend today.”

Nordgren’s parents divorced when she was 7 years old, and she spent an equal amount of time with each of them growing up.

She told PEOPLE that her childhood and her parents’ exemplary co-parenting likely influenced her amicable post-divorce relationship with Woods. “Despite the split, I feel like the base was still there,” she said. “My mom showed me that it is possible to be on your own, be a mother and still pursue your career. My father moved to Germany in 1997, and my sister and I went with him for a year to study German and English. We did 11th grade at John F. Kennedy School in Berlin.”

Nordegren continued, explaining that her parents split was for the best and ultimately helped their children. “I really wanted my children to have a core family,” she said. “However, if there is no trust between the parents, I think it is better for the children that the parents split up. I am now going to do my very best to show them that alone and happy is better than being in a relationship where there is no trust. I want to show my kids what my parents showed me as a child.”

Nordegren was bitten by the travel bug when she was a child and cherishes her European road trip memories to this day.

“Before my parents split up in 1987, they took my older brother Axel, my sister and me everywhere,” she told PEOPLE. “My brother is 13 months older than my sister and me, so we were like triplets growing up. We were the kind of family that spent every little penny left over on travel. They stuffed us into a little Fiat Panda and drove all around Europe as often as possible.”

Nordegren added that she’s been to every country in Europe multiple times, and has tried to give her kids similar travel experiences. “I think you teach your children a lot about the world when you travel,” she said.

Though Nordegren was a swimsuit model in her teens and a nanny in her early 20s, she never planned on making it her career.

“I did some modeling when I was younger. I was never very successful at it, and I didn’t intend to pursue it. It is flattering to be called a model, but I hardly think a few shoots in my teenage years make me a model,” she told PEOPLE in 2010.

Nordegren also worked as a nanny, and even spent a year nannying for Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik’s children. She had originally planned to continue studying Spanish in Barcelona, but her plans changed when she met the Parneviks and traveled to the U.S. with them.

“My intent was to go back to Sweden after a year and start my psychology studies,” she said. “‘Swimsuit model and nanny’ isn’t accurate today, but they are things that I have done. They were both great experiences.”

Parnevik was actually the one to introduce Nordegren to her future husband, Tiger Woods, though the pro golfer later said he regretted bringing the pair together.