The Tragedy Of The Hogan Family Gets Sadder & Sadder

The following includes references to domestic abuse and suicidal ideation. 

The death of WWE star Hulk Hogan at age 71 in July 2025 sent shockwaves through the firmament of pop culture. In his heyday during the 1980s, Hogan had been a towering figure, transforming professional wrestling into mainstream entertainment for the masses that raked in millions — all while becoming a major star himself. His various forays into the entertainment industry were mixed; it became clear why Hogan’s acting career flopped after he appeared in a string of box-office bombs. However, he experienced far greater success with reality television, introducing viewers to his family on the VH1 hit “Hogan Knows Best,” which ran from 2005 until 2007.

That huge burst of success, however, proved to be short-lived, a house of cards that tumbled down rapidly when a series of scandals exposed the shady side of the Hogan family. While the Hulkster and his family remained in the public eye, the fame that once enveloped them had become tarnished; the Hogans became tabloid fixtures, with salacious and unsavory details of their lives spilling out through garish headlines in supermarket checkout lines.

Looking back, it’s clear that the tragic life of the WWE superstar was punctuated by soaring highs and crushing low points, something that also held true for the rest of the clan. To find out more, read on; it will be clear that the tragedy of the Hogan family gets sadder and sadder.

Aspiring musician and bodybuilder Terry Bollea first broke into pro wrestling in the late 1970s. In August 1977, after spending a year training with legendary Japanese wrestler Hiro Matsuda, Terry “The Super Destroyer” Bollea made his debut at a small wrestling show held in a National Guard armory. Eventually taking on the Hulk Hogan persona that would catapult him to stardom, the punishment he inflicted on his body during those years came back to haunt him decades later. “I’ve had, like, 25 surgeries in the last 10 years. Ten back surgeries,” Hogan said when he appeared on the “Impaulsive” podcast in 2024. 

In addition to all those back surgeries, Hogan also had both of his knees and hips replaced. A big factor behind all that surgery, he revealed, was the quality of the ramshackle wrestling rings he fought in during his early years. “It was like a 22-foot boxing ring that had lumps in it, boards sticking up — it was horrible,” Hogan added.

All those surgeries not only impacted his body, but also led him to develop a dependence on prescription painkillers. While he conceded he needed the pills after undergoing those surgeries, he came to realize he was relying on them more than he should have been. It was at that point that he made a conscious decision to stop taking them. “Then, finally, I just looked at myself and said, ‘I’m not in pain. I don’t need this. My body hurts from all the injuries, but I’m not in excruciating pain,'” he recalled in a 2023 interview with Muscle and Fitness.

When “Hogan Knows Best” made its debut in 2005, Hulk Hogan’s wrestling career was on the wane as a new generation of younger, stronger characters flooded the WWE and its rivals. The reality show proved to be an instant hit; part of a programming block that topped 10 million viewers, the first episode was the highest-rated premiere in VH1 history. Suddenly, Hulk’s flailing career was rejuvenated, while making stars out of his wife, Linda Hogan, and their teenage children, son Nick Hogan and daughter Brooke Hogan, an aspiring pop star. 

The Hogans were seemingly on top of the world when, in August 2007, 17-year-old Nick got into a severe car crash while allegedly street racing. While he emerged unscathed, his passenger — friend John Graziano — was not so fortunate, with injuries that left him in a vegetative state, unable to walk or speak. Nick was arrested and charged with reckless driving involving serious bodily harm. This horrific accident, and Nick’s role in causing it, was a big part of the real reason that “Hogan Knows Best” was canceled just a few months later.

He subsequently entered a plea of no contest and was sentenced to eight months in jail, in addition to being placed under probation for five years. He was also ordered to pay court costs and perform 500 hours of community service, along with having his driver’s license taken away for three years. He was released after spending just five months behind bars.

Fans of “Hogan Knows Best” didn’t know it at the time, but filming for a new season had been underway until it was abruptly halted in the summer of 2007. The potential reason didn’t emerge until a few months later, when Linda Hogan filed for divorce from Hulk Hogan. Hulk was reportedly blindsided, with a source telling Page Six he was “devastated.” 

It wasn’t until a few months after that that the real reason Hulk and Linda Hogan got divorced was revealed, courtesy of Christiane Plante, BFF of the couple’s daughter, Brooke Hogan. In a bombshell interview with the National Enquirer, she revealed that she and the wrestler had an affair. According to Plante, the Hogans’ marriage had already crumbled to dust. “She had left him already, although no official papers had been filed,” Plante told the Enquirer (via Today.com), expressing her guilt while confirming her friendship with Brooke was kaput.

Linda, however, took issue with the assertion that her marriage was over when Plante hooked up with her husband. “When Linda discovered Hulk had [an affair] with Brooke’s best friend, Christiane Plante, she made the decision to call it quits on the marriage,” her publicist, Gary Smith, declared in a statement to E! News. She also slammed comments the wrestler had made implying it was the reality show that had ruined their marriage, not his behavior. “Almost every statement that comes out of Hulk’s mouth is a diversionary tactic to deflect attention away from the real reason Linda filed for divorce, two words: HULK’S CHEATING!” the statement added.

Once it began playing out in public, Hulk Hogan and Linda Hogan’s divorce was a messy (and costly) affair. Light-years from amicable, the exes’ conscious uncoupling turned into a WWE-style battle royale, with the spouses publicly trashing each other at any opportunity. 

When the divorce was finally settled in 2009, it was revealed just how much Hulk lost in his divorce. As the St. Petersburg Times reported, the Hulkster walked away with a mere 30% of their shared assets, with Linda receiving the remaining 70%. She was also granted a 40% stake in her ex’s businesses, in addition to a one-time “property settlement” of $3 million in lieu of receiving any alimony.

The enmity between the two did not end with their divorce. In Linda’s 2011 memoir, “Wrestling the Hulk: My Life Against the Ropes,” she lodged some serious allegations against him. “He used every dirty trick in the book, including trying to create a false history of drug and alcohol abuse for me,” she wrote, also accusing him of being both verbally and physically abusive. He retaliated with a defamation lawsuit; according to legal documents obtained by CBS News, he claimed that her accusations had “exposed him to distrust, hatred, contempt and ridicule.”

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.

Like his ex-wife, Hulk Hogan also wrote a book — and also weighed in on their bitter divorce. In his account, he’d begged her not to go through with it, particularly so soon after their son Nick Hogan’s devastating car accident. When she refused to back down, he spiraled into a deep depression. 

In that book, “My Life Outside the Ring,” he wrote of becoming so despondent that he considered suicide. “A gun was in my hand and my finger was on the trigger and I was thinking, it would just be so easy,” he wrote, admitting he was not in his right mind. “I was headed down this dark road convincing myself it was a road I wanted to take,” he continued. 

At the time, he was co-hosting “American Gladiators” alongside boxer Laila Ali. She’d noticed his depressed demeanor and had become concerned enough about him that she phoned him, not knowing he was in the midst of his darkest moment. That phone call, he revealed, proved to be far more monumental than Ali ever could have imagined. “For some reason, that phone call snapped me out of it,” he added. “I can’t explain why. … Laila Ali saved my life.”

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Not long after the divorce, Hulk Hogan moved on with Jennifer McDaniel, who became his second wife in December 2010 — and then his second ex-wife just over a decade later. Linda Hogan also entered another relationship after splitting from the wrestler, whipping up a whole new scandal when she began dating 19-year-old Charlie Hill, who was nearly 30 years her junior. 

Making the matter even more awkward was the fact that Hill went to the same high school as her daughter, Brooke Hogan, and was a year below her. “I’m totally freaked out,” Brooke told E! News (via The Week) of her mom’s new romance. “I personally don’t like it at all or condone it.”

Not surprisingly, the relationship crashed and burned a few years later. Hill did not go quietly, slapping Linda with a $1.5-million lawsuit demanding he be paid for all the work he’d allegedly performed for her, a lengthy list that included waxing her yacht and fertilizing her avocado grove. Linda responded through her lawyer, who told TMZ that Hill was a leech who’d never held a job throughout their four-year relationship, while Linda paid for everything, including all his clothing, even giving him an allowance. “Linda is embarrassed for Charlie and can’t believe he’d say such things considering the relationship they had,” her lawyer, Ray Rafool, told the outlet. His lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.

For Hulk Hogan, having to fork over 70% of his fortune to ex-wife Linda Hogan brought about some significant changes when it came to his finances. During their marriage, they’d owned multiple mansions and lived like royalty, which gobbled up all the money he was bringing in. As he explained in his memoir, “My Life Outside the Ring,” the upkeep on those homes could cost five to six figures each month. “It’s an overwhelming amount of money and effort just to keep those places operating,” he wrote.

When he appeared on “Good Morning America” in 2011, Hulk revealed that his family’s profligate spending had outpaced his admittedly massive earnings, leaving him hovering on the brink of bankruptcy. “[I lost] hundreds of millions. There were houses being bought, cars being bought, vacations for family members … There were eight, nine, 10, 11 of them moving into our house,” he said (via Slam! Sports).

Then married to his second wife, Jennifer McDaniel, Hulk explained that the only way out of the financial mess he’d found himself in was to downscale his lifestyle. Living more modestly, he said, had helped his financial situation improve, little by little. “I’m not living in abundance,” he admitted. “But I’m happy now. [Money] helps get through the day, it helps make things easier, but it is nothing to do with being happy.”

Hulk Hogan was still struggling to recover from his divorce when his life was roiled by a sex tape that appeared on the internet in 2012. Initially published on the Gawker website, the grainy tape showed Hogan going at it with Heather Clem, wife of his best friend, Todd Clem, aka radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge. Unbeknownst to Hogan, when he’d accepted her offer of sex — with her husband’s full approval — he didn’t realize a hidden camera in the bedroom was capturing all the action. 

To say he was blindsided was an understatement. “He feels absolutely betrayed,” said David Houston, Hogan’s lawyer, according to a New York Daily News report. Houston pointed out that the act captured in the recording, made six years earlier, came during a particularly low point, while his marriage to Linda Hogan was deteriorating. “Things were bottomed out completely,” Hogan said during an appearance on “Today” (via the Daily News). “I was with some friends, and I made a wrong choice. And now all of a sudden it surfaces, you know over six years later, and it’s just appalling.”

Hogan sued Gawker in a landmark case that wiped out the media company entirely when a jury awarded him $140 million in damages. While that amount was later reduced significantly in a settlement, to $31 million, the lawsuit set new legal standards on just how much the privacy of celebrities could be violated.

By the 2020s, Nick Hogan’s jail sentence for reckless driving was long behind him. Sadly, however, it would not be his only brush with the law. In November 2023, he was pulled over for speeding in Clearwater, Florida, with officers reporting that he’d reeked of alcohol, walked unsteadily, and failed a field sobriety test. In bodycam footage obtained by Fox 13 Tampa Bay, an officer can be seen telling Hogan he can smell booze on his breath and asking if he’d been drinking. Hogan initially denies it, claiming his breath smelled of alcohol because he’d just kissed his girlfriend. “Is that what you’re going to go with?” the officer asks. Ultimately, he was placed under arrest and charged with driving under the influence. 

In June 2024, he entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 12 months of probation. As the Tampa Bay Times reported, he would be able to request being released from probation early, after six months, but would be forced to undergo continuous alcohol monitoring for three months, and after that would be mandatorily tested for alcohol and drug use. In addition, he was ordered to pay fines exceeding $1,000.

He was penitent at his sentencing, expressing regret for his actions. “I’m very sorry for all of this going on,” he said in court, the newspaper reported. “I never wanted to be in this position again.”

More than a decade after Hulk Hogan and Linda Hogan’s marriage imploded, she continued to blame her ex-husband for their union’s destruction. In March 2025, she took to Instagram Stories and shared a tearful video, sobbing as she lashed out at her ex. “It’s been 15 however long years since I left Hulk Hogan, and my family is the worst mess,” she said while weeping. Their daughter, Brooke Hogan, she continued, wasn’t on speaking terms with either of them after a fight she and Hulk had eight years earlier. “I don’t know how that reflected onto me, but she cut me out too,” she continued. 

As the video went on, she offered even more choice words about her ex. “He’s a complete liar. He is a sex addict … Yet he marches on,” she added, pointing to his relentless promotion of one of his final business ventures, Real American Beer, while pretending to be the same ol’ Hulkster who’d once instructed kids to say their prayers and take their vitamins. “Such a hero, right? Not,” she added. 

“It’s been 20 years, and I’m still this sad,” she said, confessing that the experience of being married to and then divorcing him had permanently put her off the idea of matrimony. “I don’t ever want to be married again after him, trust me,” she declared.

As Linda Hogan pointed out, Brooke Hogan had cut herself off from both parents years earlier. “I have chosen to create some distance between myself and my family …” she wrote in a lengthy statement posted to Instagram, explaining why she chose not to attend her father’s 2023 wedding to his third wife, Sky Daily.

Sadly, that rift between Brooke and her father, Hulk Hogan, had not healed prior to his death. “There was a little strain with his daughter and their relationship that had taken quite the emotional toll, but he always thought he would eventually be able to rectify that,” a source told the Daily Mail, while another source confirmed to TMZ that father and daughter hadn’t spoken in years — and he’d never even seen her two children.

After his death, Brooke paid tribute to her father in a statement she shared via Instagram. By her somewhat cryptic account, he’d pulled away from her in recent years. “Everything started getting covered in a thick veil. It was like there was a force field around him that I couldn’t get through,” she wrote. She continued by revealing she’d felt a “disconnect” with him that took a deep emotional toll on her. “During the last two years, I had to step away to protect my heart,” she explained. A subsequent report claimed that a few years earlier, she had requested to be removed from his will, as she didn’t trust the people around him and didn’t want to be part of the financial mess she anticipated after his death.