Hulk Hogan Family Secrets

Hulk Hogan and Linda Hogan’s marriage was marred with allegations of infidelity, which began on Season 3 of “Hogan Knows Best.” Linda suspected Hulk was cheating with receptionist Christiane Plante, who worked at Brooke Hogan’s record label. “She was this beautiful, fair-skinned brunette … and every time she’d come over to the house, she was never offbeat,” Linda recalled in an interview with “E! True Hollywood Story.”

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According to Linda, learning about the affair brought a sad ending to the show’s 3rd season. “It made filming and it made having to put your life in public difficult,” she told the outlet. “I’m sure towards the end of our show, our tensions showed through. And it was to the point where I didn’t care about a contract. I don’t want to be on the show. I don’t care.”

Hulk confirmed his involvement with Plante in his 2007 memoir, “Hulk Hogan: My Life Outside the Ring,” claiming that they got intimate no more than five times. In a chat with The National Enquirer (via Today), Plante alleged that their relationship started when Linda and Hulk were separated. Plante further disclosed that the affair led to a strain on her friendship with Brooke. “Having felt the guilt and pain build up, I gave a note to Brooke apologizing for my actions,” Plante told the publication. “I will never be able to fully forgive myself for this. I have lost an amazing friend.”

Linda Hogan filed for divorce from Hulk Hogan in November 2007. At the time, the retired wrestler wasn’t aware that Linda had plans to end their marriage; Hulk unfortunately learned about his divorce during an interview. When a reporter from The St. Petersburg Times (via The Gainesville Sun) unexpectedly let him know that Linda’s filing had been done in a Pinellas County court, Hulk said, “Thank you for the great information.” A dumbstruck Hulk later told the outlet, “My wife has been in California for about three weeks … Wow, you just knocked the bottom out of me.”

Linda and Hulk formalized their divorce in July 2009 after a hostile process. Hulk lost more money in their divorce since Linda reportedly walked away with a 70% share of their joint assets and investments. Nonetheless, she expressed that she had not lost her soft spot for the ex-wrestler. “I still love him. He’s the father of my children,” Linda told The Tampa Tribune (via People).

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In a series of since-expired posts shared in March 2025 on her Instagram Stories, Linda revealed that she, too, was blindsided during their divorce. “My lawyers were in cahoots with his lawyers,” she told her audience. “They had everything set up where they were cashing in on me … Half of my settlement went to lawyers and back into the lawyer pod. And I ended up with hardly anything.”

In July 2011, Hulk Hogan’s ex-wife, Linda Hogan, who is still in the spotlight long after “Hogan Knows Best” came to an end, authored the book “Wrestling the Hulk: My Life Against the Ropes.” It detailed secrets about her relationship with Hulk, suggesting that there was more to being a picture-perfect wife than met the eye. Linda disclosed that she had to endure the use of steroids and drugs in her marriage and further accused the one-time Kids’ Choice Award-winner of domestic violence.

“You never knew what you were dealing with,” Linda said while promoting her book on Fox News. “And, you know, fights would escalate … It wasn’t, like, a knockout by Mike Tyson or anything, it was really just a bullying or brawling kind of a thing. You know, a poking, or squeezing your face, or pulling you up by your shirt or your hair.”

Hulk filed a lawsuit against Linda for defamation in December 2011. Per court documents, the former wrestler stated that Linda’s revelations had damaging effects on his career and business affairs. Hulk was reportedly seeking an injunction to prevent Linda from making any public remarks about their relationship. At the time of writing, the fate of the case has not been made public. Still, that didn’t mark the last time the exes were embroiled in a legal war. In March 2012, a case in which Hulk alleged that Linda didn’t exercise due diligence when “she did not obtain enough insurance coverage to cover Nick’s accident” — more on Nick Hogan’s car crash later — was dismissed, per Fox News.

A sex tape between Hulk Hogan and Heather Clem, the ex-wife of Florida DJ Bubba the Love Sponge, leaked in 2012. According to reports, the sex tape was recorded by DJ Bubba the Love Sponge himself, with whom Hulk was best of friends. It was alleged that the DJ was in possession of the damaging clip at his workplace, and a competing DJ eventually got hold of it. “He started to leak the videos, not to embarrass Hogan, but to embarrass Bubba, whose time slot he was trying to steal,” Ryan Holiday, who authored a book based on the case, claimed in an interview with The Atlantic.

In October of that year, gossip site Gawker published bits of the tape online. That same month, Hulk filed a lawsuit against the site and was seeking a $100 million compensation for having his privacy invaded. Hulk’s case was reportedly backed by billionaire and ex-PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, who was said to be out to seek revenge after the publication outed his sexuality in 2007.

In March 2016, Hulk won the case and was awarded $115 million in damages. He eventually settled with the publication for $31 million in cash, which threw Gawker out of business. His ex-wife, Linda Hogan, did not take a liking to his victory. “I don’t know how he can sleep at night knowing that he’s got the money for doing what he did … in a roundabout way” Linda remarked in a chat with “Inside Edition.” “It’s dirty money … it’s kind of representing saying to the public that he’s being rewarded for bad behavior.”

Following her separation from Hulk Hogan, 48-year-old Linda Hogan began dating 19-year-old Charlie Hill. It wasn’t a relationship that her daughter, Brooke Hogan, approved of. “I don’t believe what’s going on you know,” Brooke said in a 2008 interview with Access Hollywood (via Today). “I don’t condone it and I’m like, ‘Who are you?'”

The couple eventually got engaged, but they broke up in May 2012. Two years after they called it quits, Hill sued Hogan for a reported $1.5 million. Per reports, Hill claimed that he did a lot of unpaid labor for Hogan — waxing the yacht, digging, landscaping, and even managing a group of chainsaw laborers.

According to Hogan’s lawyer, Ray Rafool, she wasn’t impressed when she heard of Hill’s lawsuit. “Linda is embarrassed for Charlie and can’t believe he’d say such things considering the relationship they had,” Rafool said in a chat with TMZ at the time. Hill was said to have had a luxurious life while dating Linda, and he supposedly received a $9,000 settlement when they split up. Ultimately, the case against Hogan was dismissed in 2015.

Hulk Hogan reportedly used a racial slur in his leaked sex tape. According to The National Inquirer and Radar Online (via The New York Times), Hulk confessed that he was “racist to a point” and further use the derogatory word “n***a” while referencing Brooke Hogan’s relationship with a black man. Consequently, the 2015 revelation led to the end of Hulk’s contract with WWE after he faced public backlash. Hulk had worked with the fight entertainment company since the ’80s.

Amid the allegations, Brooke took to Facebook to defend her dad by penning a sentimental poem that spoke of his character. The “For a Moment” singer later told ET, “He’s my dad, I love him and the reason I’m standing by his side on this whole thing is because I know him, and it’s so easy for people to just — they need something to jump down people’s backs about.”

In the end, Hulk apologized to the public. In a conversation with ABC News, he explained that he was filmed in a vulnerable moment. “I was at the lowest point of my life,” Hulk said. “My personal life was destroyed. I was very mad at my daughter. I was upset over a situation that happened between her and her boyfriend.” Hulk’s dismissal also resulted in his removal from the WWE Hall of Fame, but he was reinstated in 2018.

After Hulk and Linda Hogan’s marriage came to an end, Hulk moved on with Jennifer McDaniel, with whom he tied the knot in December 2010. The pair remained married for a little over a decade. Hulk announced his divorce in February 2022 and also revealed that he was already dating yoga instructor Sky Daily. The following year, Hulk and Daily walked down the aisle in Clearwater, Florida in a low-key wedding ceremony attended by their loved ones.

Hulk shared a video of their big day on Instagram with the caption, “My new life starts now!” In true Hulk fashion, no expense was spared for their nuptials. Daily looked stunning in a patterned Rue de Seine gown, which she paired with eye-catching jewelry. The couple’s stunning photos revealed their fine taste in rings; the bands were estimated to cost a whopping $500,000.

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Hulk’s daughter, Brooke Hogan, missed her father’s big day. The “Falling” singer took to Instagram to explain her absence, writing, “My family has experienced a LOT of change. With all of it happening in the public eye, I’ve had to learn how to best navigate those changes as they come, which has been difficult to say the least. For my own journey to healing and happiness, I have chosen to create some distance between myself and my family.”

For years, Brooke Hogan and her mom, Linda Hogan, were two peas in a pod. The pair’s relationship may have seemed solid, but according to Brooke, it was only because that was all she had experienced. “We were close because I was, like, I didn’t know any different,” Brooke remarked in a 2009 interview with radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge, adding that they became distant once she began to live on her own.

In the series of posts Linda Hogan made on her Instagram stories in March 2025, she disclosed that she wasn’t on good terms with Brooke. Linda claimed she only got along with her son, Nick Hogan. “It’s been 15 however long years since I left Hulk Hogan and my family is the worst mess,” Linda said, per Page Six. “Brooke doesn’t talk to us. She had twins, she got married [and] she didn’t tell us.” Brooke and her spouse, retired hockey player Steven Oleksy, had their nuptials at a small ceremony in Orlando, Florida, in June 2022. The duo then had more celebrations in Michigan in December 2023, during which Oleksy’s family was present.

Following her mom’s remarks, the “About Us” singer took to Instagram to dismiss the allegations. “She [Linda] made false claims like she had ‘never met my husband’ and she doesn’t even know what his name is,’ then deleted it.” Brooke wrote. “She says she hasn’t spoken to me for a number of years, yet I have a picture with her and my husband together on a day we did lunch together.”

Linda Hogan’s March 2025 posts on her strained relationship with her family birthed an online feud with her daughter, Brooke Hogan. In her first response to Linda’s posts, Brooke disclosed that one of her reasons for no longer being close with her family was abuse. Brooke wrote, “I have been EXTREMELY verbally and mentally abused since childhood. Sadly, it would frequently turn physical. And sometimes it’s not by the person you would assume, abuse comes in all shapes and sizes.”

Brooke’s assertions didn’t spark an official response from Hulk Hogan, but he appeared to react to the mother-daughter feud by posting a video of himself and his wife, Sky Daily, making faces while having popcorn. In a since-deleted Facebook post, Linda admitted that there were instances in the past where she “spanked Brooke once” and “called her a couple of names,” per People. Linda went on to accuse Brooke of bearing narcissistic traits.

Brooke’s husband, Steven Oleksy, took to Instagram to defend her. In his post, Oleksy thanked their fans for showing solidarity with their family and insisted that his wife wasn’t out to seek sympathy, all while reiterating that Linda’s claims couldn’t be further from the truth. “I cannot stand by and allow anyone to continue to hurt not only the most amazing person I am fortunate enough to call my wife,” he wrote in part, “but also the distorted sense of power and relevance the media can sometimes grant individuals.”

In 2007, Hulk and Linda Hogan’s son, Nick Hogan, reportedly caused a car crash while racing. Nick was driving a Toyota Supra in Clearwater, Florida, when he lost control and ended up smashing a tree. He was in the company of a friend, John Graziano, who suffered a traumatic brain injury. Graziano was hospitalized and released after two years. It was reported that he would probably need care for the rest of his life.

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Graziano’s family filed a lawsuit against Nick, which ended in a settlement in the neighborhood of $5 million in 2011. Consequently, Nick received an eight-month sentence for driving recklessly. While he was locked up, Brooke Hogan disclosed that he wasn’t getting along with other young convicts. “There’s been a couple, you know, confrontations in there,” Brooke shared in her chat with Access Hollywood (via Today). Nonetheless, Nick was let go after serving for five months.

In November 2023, Nick had yet another brush with the law when he was caught driving while inebriated. He reportedly had an altercation with a police officer that nearly turned physical. 33-year-old Nick apologized for his actions, but he still received a one-year probation sentence. He was also ordered to pay $1,000 in fines and undergo sobriety tests after four months.

If you or anyone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, or may be the victim of child abuse, contact the relevant resources below:

• Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
• Contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.