Brooke Hogan has opened up on one of the most painful chapters of her relationship with her late father.
Hulk Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, passed away from a heart attack at the age of 71 in July of last year.
At the time of his death, the wrestling legend and his daughter were estranged, going a number of years without speaking.
One of the lowest points in their fractured relationship came when a leaked sex tape of Hogan surfaced in 2015 catching him in a racist rant about Brooke and her then-boyfriend Yannique Barker.
Nine months on from his death, Brooke has now opened up on the tough time, revealing that she and Barker suffered greater personal consequences over the scandal than her father did.
‘That was so rough,’ Brooke told US Weekly. ‘My dad got so much, like, ‘Oh my gosh, poor Hulk. He’s going through this. He’s fighting the sex tape thing.’ I’m like, ‘What about us?’ We were the subject of it.’
Brooke admitted that the leaked tape was the beginning of the end for her relationship with Barker.
She revealed that the fallout of the scandal took its toll on their relationship, eventually leading to their split.
‘Me and Yannique really went through it when that sex tape came out, and it tore us apart,’ she said. ‘It was the most embarrassing thing in the world. It was terrible.’
In 2012, gossip blog Gawker posted a sex tape of Hulk and Heather Clem, the wife of his then-best friend Bubba the Love Sponge, which had been taken in 2006 without the star’s knowledge.
Hulk, who said he’d been given the blessing of his pal ahead of the sexual encounter, claimed the video was taken at a ‘low point’ during his and Linda’s crumbling marriage.
But what was most damning about the leaked video was that it captured a racist rant from Hogan about his daughter dating a black man.
In 2015, several publications reported transcripts from court documents in which the blonde hunk could be heard using the n-word multiple times and admitting that he was racist ‘to a point.’
The tirade seriously tainted the WWE legend’s legacy, with him chucked out of the franchise and admitting he was left ‘at an all-time low’.
Just days after the video sent shockwaves through the world, Hogan filed a lawsuit against Gawker claiming emotional distress and invasion of privacy.
He was secretly being backed by billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel, who is thought to have paid for the lawsuit in the first place. Thiel allegedly involved himself with the aim of destroying Gawker, a publication which outed him as homosexual in 2007.
A Florida jury awarded Hogan $115million in compensatory damages and $25m in punitive damages. Both parties however later agreed to a $31m settlement, which left Gawker bankrupt.
Despite their rift Brooke was left devastated by his passing, admitting it ‘felt like part of my spirit left with him’ when he suffered the fatal heart attack last year.
And close to nine months since he was found dead at his five-bedroom mansion in Florida , she has posted a heartbreaking message about her father on Instagram.
Brooke shared a black-and-white illustration of her dad holding her in his arms and wrote as the caption: ‘If my love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.’
