Wrestling star Hulk Hogan’s biggest regret was invited TV cameras into his house for a hit reality show, his manager of 40 years said. Jimmy Hart, who was also a close pal of Hogan’s, said the show was a “recipe for disaster”.
And in a new documentary out today, the Hulkster said he agreed to the 2005 reality show Hogan Knows Best was an attempt to pull his family back together, but it backfired when Linda discovered he’d cheated on her with a friend of their daughter Brooke.
Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, said: “I’d been gone so much, my family, my marriage was already pretty much in shambles.
“My prayer was that it would bring Linda and I together in some form or another, have something in common where we could be excited about something and move forward.”
Jimmy said he warned his friend it would backfire, saying; “I told him ‘You’re fixing to turn your wife into a star. You’re going to turn your kids into stars. You’re already a star, so you’re used to it. Will they adapt to it?’
“Being together, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The reality show Hogan Knows Best was a recipe for a disaster.”
In the first episode of the four-part series, Linda told how she met Hogan in a bar where she worked shortly after he appeared in Rocky III in 1982 and revealed she went back to his apartment.
She told the documentary: “We go up and it’s this rickety-ass old apartment. He brings me a beer. He’s like, I’ll be right back. He goes in the bathroom. (I was) waiting the longest time. All of a sudden he comes out. He’s completely naked.
“It was like seeing a woolly mammoth. He was huge. And how many people can say they got f***ed by a giant.”
The pair were married a year later and had two kids Brooke, 37, and Nick, 35. Home videos of the family, shot by Linda, show a devoted dad whose kids adore him.
But his career and obsession with superstardom meant he was rarely home, which took a toll on the marriage. Linda tells the documentary: “he character was so strong, Terry somehow got lost along the trip.”
The toxic split in 2007, which eventually resulted in Brooke being estranged from both parents, also saw Linda shack up with 19-year-old lover Charlie Hill, who was 30 years her junior.
Hogan said: “I hit rock bottom. I gave Linda 70 per cent of everything because I just didn’t want to ever talk to her again. I gave her everything to get rid of her. The judge wouldn’t let me live in my big house or my little house, so I had nowhere to go.
“I rented an apartment. It was at the top of this building where I could see my beach house. It was tough because I could hear my boat started in the morning, and Linda’s 19-year-old boyfriend would back it out.”
Linda said she deliberately flaunted her new relationship, admitting: “I’d go, that’s Terry. Drive by. Go go in close. I was making out all over Charlie. And I’m driving in circles. I was like ‘how do you feel about that? It hurts, right?’”
The documentary charts Hogan’s career from his early days on the territory scene, driving thousands of miles between shows and pulling in $800 a week, to his Hulkamania heyday as the biggest star the wrestling business had ever seen.
It also shows him grapple with real life issues outside the ring, including steroid and sex tape scandals, the bitter divorce that left him suicidal and wrestling crowds booing him over his racial slurs and his support for Donald Trump, who also features in the docuseries.
Hogan was captured on film just five months before he died at his home in Clearwater, Florida, following spinal surgery in July last year. Jimmy says Hulk’s legacy will live on forever and reveals he misses him every day.
He added: “Hulk and I were friends for 43 years. So, when I go places now, the people still go, ‘Jimmy, I’m so sorry about your loss.
“I always say, ‘I am too, but he’s in a better place now. God needed another angel. He’s up there. He’s no more back surgeries, no more pain, no more suffering.’”
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