Recently, social media has been abuzz with shocking news about golf legend Tiger Woods suing US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for up to $50 million in damages for “defamation” during a television interview.

Tiger Woods - Photo 1.

Golf legend Tiger Woods (left) and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth – Photo: Snopes

On October 7, a rumor suddenly appeared on social media, causing a stir when it was said that golf legend Tiger Woods had officially filed a lawsuit against US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Accordingly, Mr. Tiger Woods requested compensation of up to 50 million USD for the accusation of “insulting honor” in a television interview, when Mr. Pete Hegseth was still a host at Fox News.

The news quickly spread on Facebook and the Threads platform, with posts claiming that Pete Hegseth had publicly “directly attacked” Tiger Woods, questioning the “integrity” of the world’s top golfer.

Tiger Woods - Photo 2.

A social media post claims that Mr. Pete Hegseth is being sued for “attacking” Mr. Tiger Woods during a TV interview – Photo: Snopes

However, according to the fact-checking site Snopes, the above rumor is completely baseless. 

Searching for information on major search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo also did not record any official sources about the lawsuit or interviews between these two characters. 

There is not even any video or evidence that this event ever took place.

Additionally, a clear indication that this is fake news is that Pete Hegseth stopped working at Fox News in November 2024, when he was appointed Secretary of Defense by President Donald Trump. 

Since then, he has not hosted or given any public interviews on television.

During its investigation, Snopes found that Facebook posts directed users to ad-filled blogs and fake news sites – a common tactic of fake news sites to attract views and generate ad revenue.

Notably, the Tiger Woods rumor is almost a copy of another fake news that was spread before about golfer Rory McIlroy also suing Minister Pete Hegseth and Fox News for the same reason and amount of compensation. The content of these two rumors is identical in every detail, except for the name of the character.