Hulk Hogan Admits He Turned to Drug and Alcohol Abuse After Divorce From Linda—as He Lays Bare Secret Home Life in Posthumous Documentary

by Charlie Lankston

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Famed wrestler Hulk Hogan revealed in an emotional interview before his death that he fell into a dangerous pattern of drug and alcohol abuse in the wake of his divorce from his first wife, Linda, explaining in a newly released Netflix documentary how his life slowly fell apart behind closed doors.

Hogan, who died in July 2025 of cardiac arrest at the age of 71, took part in a wide-ranging interview with Netflix in January of that same year—in what would become his final on-screen appearance. Now, that footage has been revealed in the streaming giant's new documentary series, "Hulk Hogan: Real American."

In the series, Hogan addresses his downfall after his 2009 divorce from Linda, whom he wed in 1983 and shared two children, Nick and Brooke, with.

Hogan points to a particularly controversial interview he did with Rolling Stone that same year, which sparked uproar after the magazine ran the piece with a headline suggesting that the wrestler "understood" accused murderer O.J. Simpson.

The wrestler, whose real name was Terry Bollea, says the fallout from that piece, which he believed was an unfair recounting of his words, further exacerbated his already fragile mental state, and spurred his drug and alcohol abuse.

At his lowest point, he says he even contemplated suicide.

"I went home and I started drinking and you know started eating pills, and I just went down this rabbit hole for a couple days; and the next thing I know, I'm sitting in front of my bathroom with a gun in my mouth and not knowing what I was doing," he recalls

Hulk Hogan gestures to the audience during his Hulkamania Tour at the Burswood Dome on November 24, 2009 in Perth, Australia
Famed wrestler Hulk Hogan revealed in an emotional interview before his death that he fell into a dangerous pattern of drug and alcohol abuse in the wake of his divorce from his first wife, Linda. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Hogan also opens up about his financial struggles after his divorce, revealing that he signed up for a role with TNA (Total Nonstop Wrestling), a major competitor to WWE, in order to continue earning money after he gave "everything" to his former spouse in their split.

However, it soon became clear that Hogan was struggling with a myriad of injuries and was finding it hard to compete, with the wrestler revealing that he began taking enormous doses of fentanyl in order to manage his pain.

"I was taking 80-milligram fentanyls, two in the morning, stuffing them under my gums here," he says, while demonstrating how he would place the medication in his mouth.

"I had two 300mg patches of fentanyl on my legs, and they gave me six 1500mg fentanyl lollipops to eat."

Hogan further reveals that when he went to a local pharmacy, the man working there told him: "You should be dead. We have never seen a human being take this much fentanyl."

Following his divorce from Linda, Hogan went on to marry two other women—Jennifer McDaniel, to whom he was wed from 2010 until 2011, and Sky Daily, with whom he tied the knot in 2023.

For the last decade of his life, Hogan spent the majority of his time hunkered down at his oceanfront compound in Florida, which he purchased in two separate transactions, first snapping up his sprawling primary residence, followed by a small adjacent cottage that he bought several years later.

Hogan purchased the larger of the two homes for $3.33 million in April 2012, before adding the smaller adjacent property for $1.6 million four years later.

Both of those properties are currently on the market.

Nick Hogan, Brooke Hogan, Linda Hogan and Hulk Hogan
In a new Netflix series, Hogan addresses his downfall after his 2009 divorce from Linda, whom he wed in 1983 and shared two children, Nick and Brooke, with. (Carley Margolis/FilmMagic)

His primary residence was put on the market at the end of January for $10.98 million, with listing agent Martha Thorn of The Thorn Collection at Coldwell Banker Realty revealing at the time that the cottage was in the process of being prepared for sale, with plans to put it on the market at a later date.

That second property was placed on the market for $4.5 million earlier this month.

While Hogan did own both homes, he never made any attempt to combine them into one giant structure, instead using the cottage as a guesthouse, with the listing noting that it could serve as "dream coastal retreat" for one lucky buyer.

In theory, should a buyer wish to create a much larger waterfront dwelling, they could scoop up both properties, which would given them a parcel totaling around 0.3 acres.

Property records show that both homes, which Hogan purchased several years apart, are registered to an LLC linked to the wrestler and his ex-wife, Jennifer.

After Hogan's death, it was revealed that his son, Nick, had been named as the sole heir to his fortune—however, the wrestler's Clearwater, FL, compound was not included in the assets left to his younger child.

Hogan was living at the larger of his two Clearwater properties, with his third wife, Sky, when he died.

Around six weeks after his death, his son Nick, 35, filed documents asking to be named as the co-personal representative of his father's estate, alongside a man named Terry McCoy, as first reported by Us Weekly. The court signed off on his request.

In that filing, Nick claimed that his father had a sizable fortune when he died, including $200,000 worth of cryptocurrency, $799,000 in personal and intellectual property, and his right to publicity, which is valued at $4 million.

This did not include the two Clearwater properties, which had an estimated total value of $11 million when Hogan died, according to Realtor.com®.

Keith Francis

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