WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan appeared Monday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview that was taped this past Thursday (8/27) to tell his side of the story of the leaked racial rant by Radar-Online and the National Enquirer that Hogan made as part of a sex tape with the ex-wife of Bubba the Love Sponge, Heather Clem, that is currently part of an ongoning $100 million lawsuit with Gawker.com.
Hogan noted that this has hit him the hardest out of all the things he has been through. Hogan said when the sex tape was recorded that had that racial rant, he was at the lowest point of his life and was suicidal. He was mad at his daughter Brooke and her then-boyfriend and had no idea he was being taped. Hogan said he is not a racist, he is embarassed by what he said and that it was wrong. Hogan said people need to understand that you inherit things by where you grow up and “where I grew up in Tampa”, all his friends would greet each other, black and white, saying that word (the N word), it was thrown around like it was nothing. Hogan said that it is fair to say he inherited a racial bias over time, due to the environment he grew up in. All his friends, black and white, would say that word on a daily basis and would greet each other with that in the morning, it was part of the culture he grew up in. Hogan asked for forgiveness from his fans, saying he’s not the Hulk Hogan character you have seen for years, I’m Terry Bollea, I’m just a normal man.
Hogan brought up WWE distancing themselves from him adding, “My entire career, it was like it never happened.” Hogan began breaking down in tears when talking about his daughter, Brooke, defending him when the racial rants were leaked. Hogan said that if anyone should have disowned him, it should have been her, she should have been the one to throw me out the trash, but instead she showed me more love than anybody. Hogan said his daughter was so supportive, even though she was the “direction of his attack.” Hogan said he was mad at her when he made the rant, not her then-boyfriend. Hogan said his daughter told him, “I don’t need to forgive you, because I’m not mad at you.”
The interview closed with Hogan saying that just because a person makes a mistake, you don’t throw them away. If everybody at their lowest point was judged on one thing they said and all of a sudden, their entire career was wiped out because of something from 10, 20 years ago, it’d be a sad world, people get better everyday, they get better. Hogan said that he is working to raise awareness of the impact hateful language can have, but would still give his right arm to be involved in pro wrestling again. However, it remains to be seen if WWE will allow that according to Hogan.
The interviewer mentioned Hogan’s ongoing lawsuit with Gawker, but made it like that Hogan was removed from the WWE Hall of Fame and WWE removed him completely from their history when in reality, Hogan is still in the WWE Hall of Fame and his matches are still included on the WWE Network. Finally, the interviewer brought up that Hogan will be appearing on “Nightline” on Monday night to again tell his side of the story, taped last Thursday.
This ended the segment.
You can view video of the segment with Hogan below.