Elin Nordegren PEOPLE Cover Did Not Outsell Brangelina

Close, but not quite.

But...

PEOPLE did a great job with their Elin Nordegren interview, from the "gotcha" surprise to the fact that they didn't even have to pay Elin for speaking out. That's a smart move, and it makes the Elin tell-all one of the most profitable issues of all time.

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If you're just looking at the stats, then there are three powerful PEOPLE covers that have been jockeyed for position: the first was Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's famous twins cover (2.5 million copies sold), the second was Sandra Bullock's recent cover with her baby (almost identical in sales), and the third was Elin Nordegren, with an estimated 2 million copies sold.

Rob Shuter of PopEater did a little investigating about Elin's PEOPLE cover. Did you know that she didn't sell her story?

"This wasn't about the money for Elin," a friend of Elin Nordegren told Shuter. "It was about telling her story once and for all. She will be happy that so many people bought the issue and finally read the truth. But now she hopes they all go away and leave her and her family alone. The last thing in the world Elin wanted to be was a celebrity."

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For the record, the best-selling PEOPLE issue was following September 11th, and it sold 4.1 million copies. Right behind that popular copy was the PEOPLE issued after Princess Diana's death, which sold 3 million mags. Regardless, Elin Nordegren has said what she needed to say, and now we hope she gallivants off to live her life... and find love with a class act.