Things seem to be going from bad to worse for pro wrestler Hulk Hogan. The former WWE champ turned reality TV star is back in the headlines again.
Hogan whose real name is Terry Bollea found out yesterday that his wife of 24 years filed for divorce. Only it wasn’t Linda Bollea who broke the news to the Hulkster… a Florida newspaper reporter who did the honors.
By all accounts a single phone call turned Bollea’s Black Friday even darker. According to a local St. Petersburg newspaper, when a reporter called Terry Bollea to ask him if he had a comment regarding his wife’s formal filing, Bollea said politely, “Thank you for the great information,” and hung up.
He called back about five minutes later.
“I’m kind of shocked,” Bollea told the newspaper reporter. “You caught me off-guard. My wife has been in California for about three weeks. … Holy smokes. Wow, you just knocked the bottom out of me. … I just pulled over to the side of the road for five minutes to find out what was going on here.”
It’s another blow to the pro wrestler whose entire family (including Linda and the couple’s two teenage children Brooke and Nick) appears in the VH1 reality series “Hogan Knows Best.”
Recently, the couple’s son Nick made headlines when he crashed his car into a tree and severely injured his friend and passenger John Graziano. Nick Bollea faces a felony charge on allegations he was driving recklessly in August when his Toyota Supra slammed into the tree. Police say Nick was racing his souped up sports car moments before the crash. Graziano, a Marine who served in Iraq, remains comatose in a St. Petersburg hospital. If he were to die, prosecutors said they could upgrade the charges against Nick Bollea.
Fans of “Hogan Knows Best” know the couple has experienced their share of martial difficulties. In fact, their struggles were the subject of one of the episodes titled “Wedlock Headlocks.” In it Linda Bollea claims she is fed up with the marriage and wants out. But later, the couple goes to counseling, the Hulkster writes his wife a love letter, and they end up reconciling.
But that was prior to their son’s much publicized accident and subsequent arrest. So much for tragedy bringing the family closer together.