Brooke Hogan appeared on the Bubba the Love Sponge Show on April 23, 2026 and laid out a series of deeply personal allegations about the handling of her father Hulk Hogan’s autopsy, the circumstances of his death, the estate she says she was pushed out of, and a Netflix documentary she believes misrepresented his life. She was joined by by an attorney named Jay who described himself as a medical malpractice lawyer with 30 years of experience.
Hulk Hogan, born Terry Gene Bollea, died on July 24, 2025 at the age of 71. His death was ruled natural causes. He had suffered a heart attack and had been battling atrial fibrillation and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He is survived by his son Nick, his daughter Brooke, his mother Ruth, and his widow Sky Daily, whom he married in September 2023.
The Autopsy
Brooke’s central complaint was that she has been unable to obtain her father’s autopsy and that changes are still being made to it months after his death.
“Why are we making changes to an autopsy after the guy’s been dead for ten, eleven months? It’s almost like I’ve got every single thing like a game of Clue, and I’m missing the candlestick and Colonel Mustard. Every sign points to, if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck, and it’s like I just don’t have the duck.”
Bubba responded: “And they’re playing hide the duck with you to the tenth degree.”
Brooke’s answer to anyone suggesting this is all above board was direct: “If it’s so on the up and up, shut me up. Just show it to me.”
She said the most alarming detail is not just the delay but the specific way the death and autopsy were handled, beginning with who signed the death certificate.
“It’s like I wouldn’t have thought to do something like this. It’s almost like you have to be skilled in the art of doing it. The premeditated, already knowing to call the private doctor down to sign his time of death versus the guy that’s on duty in the ER who would normally do it. If there’s nothing to hide, there’s nothing to hide. But instead they’re like, let’s call this guy and have him come down and sign it. And what’s crazy about that is, if that doctor allegedly gave him anything, by him signing off and saying it was a natural death, well, that closes the case. We all wipe our hands and it goes away.”
The attorney, Jay, said the medical circumstances were deeply irregular based on his professional experience.
“I’ve done medical malpractice for 30 years. I’ve never heard of a situation like that one. I’ve never heard of a situation where the doctor whose patient died came in and did the time of death. The doctor whose patient died came in and did the autopsy. I’ve never in my entire life heard of that. And I’ve reviewed thousands and thousands.”
Jay said he personally contacted the medical examiner and attempted to argue there was public interest grounds for a formal examination, citing the Michael Jackson, Joan Rivers, and Matthew Perry cases as precedent. The medical examiner told him it was natural circumstances and that nothing suspicious had occurred. Jay described the conversation as very frustrating, saying the medical examiner had the statutory authority to conduct an independent examination but chose not to.
Bubba noted that the investigation was reopened just as Brooke was pressing for access, and explained the practical consequence: “When an investigation is closed, you can get the information via the Public Freedom of Information Act. But when a case stays open, nobody can access anything.”
Brooke confirmed: “Clever.”
She also described the status of the private autopsy that was eventually performed, saying it took place after embalming, not immediately after death. Bubba said this was not by accident.
“They embalmed him quickly to get all of his blood out. That was within hours or days. Then they did a quick cremation. And nine, ten months later, when his daughter’s on the phone saying, ‘Hey, can I get some results here,’ they’re like, ‘We’re still making changes. It’s an open investigation.'”
The Nurse Who Was Present
Brooke said one of the most troubling elements of the day her father died is that the nurse who was on duty has vanished.
“The nurse was upstairs fixing the toilet or doing something like that. Through the grapevine, through the stories I’ve heard, the nurse had been sent to go do something. And coincidentally, while he’s gone, my dad just passes. And Sky was the one to notice that he stops breathing. Now, if you wanted to go get the autopsy, they’ve hired a private doctor to do the autopsy. So private doctor to sign off on the death, private nurse, and private autopsy doctor. I can’t get anything.”
She said the nurse who was the only other person present that day “has disappeared. He’s scared. You can’t get a hold of him. Nobody can get a hold of this guy.”
Scientology
Bubba volunteered his theory about who is behind the obstruction, and was explicit that he was offering a personal opinion.
“I got one of my lawyers here. It’s my opinion, and I don’t know what to be true, but it’s my opinion that Scientology had a hand in your father’s demise, health wise. They have hid this thing, they have reopened it, we’re talking about the autopsy, they have made adjustments to it. They let his primary physician, not the medical examiner, not the coroner, nothing like that, they let a family physician, a regular primary care physician, do the autopsy.”
Brooke did not confirm or deny the Scientology claim. She said she believes the handling of the process required foreknowledge of how to make a death difficult to investigate. “It’s almost like you have to be skilled in the art of doing it.”
The Netflix Documentary
Brooke described the Hulk Hogan Netflix documentary as a piece of marketing more than a genuine examination of her father’s life.
“It was a great showpiece. But did they dive into anything deep? Absolutely not.”
Bubba called it “surface vanilla. It was almost like a propaganda piece, really.”
Brooke said the documentary’s power was its effect on public perception, and suggested her father himself understood how that dynamic worked.
“Dad used to always talk about the power of public perception. Something like that will sway judges, something like that will sway media, it’ll sway people, it’ll sway a jury. It’s amazing. It’s almost like Men in Black. Like they shocked everybody and made them forget about every single scandal, and every single thing that went on. All the people that suffered at the hands of that sex tape and the N word. And I mean, I’m still dealing with the backlash of the N word.”
She said the documentary presented her father at his best but avoided everything that made him complicated.
“They made this documentary, and it’s almost like in Men in Black they flashed people’s memory. And the last thing people saw was this documentary that was like a heroic, wow, what a great guy. And it’s like, yes, some parts of him he was a really great guy. But we didn’t touch on what made him human and what affected the most important people in his life, and why he ended up with three wives and not talking to his daughter, and scandals. It’s just amazing how people forget so quickly.”
She said their grandfather Pete and Brooke herself were the two people most misrepresented by omission. Bubba agreed and added that Jennifer McDaniel, Hogan’s third wife, was also glossed over despite being what he called the best woman who ever entered Hogan’s life.
“She was an amazing woman, she was an amazing wife, she was just an amazing person, not a mean-spirited bone in her body. She forgave me for the sex tape. She’s just such a beautiful person on the inside and outside, and they completely glossed over her.”
Brooke said her relationship with her father was at its best during the Jennifer McDaniel years.
“The time that Jen was with him, I feel like I had the best relationship with my dad during that time. She kept things light, we’d go on the boat, she kept him in good spirits. My dad was that kind of guy that would fall into, for lack of a better word, depression, or kind of looking into the past. And she was always the one to be like, ‘Baby, it’s a new day. We’re so lucky to have woken up this morning, and we get to go to the beach.’ She’d always remind him of what good we had in our lives and really kept him afloat.”
The Estate
Brooke said she voluntarily stepped away from the position her father had placed her in as co-executor of his estate and handed it to her brother Nick, with a promise that she would be looked after.
“My dad had me right in that position as head honcho, right next to Terry McCoy. And Nick was not on anything. And I made a promise to my dad. I said, of course, Dad, I will dole out everything equally between me and Nick. I’ll make sure he’s taken care of, even if I have to give him more to get him on his feet. I texted Nick and said, Nick, I’m putting you in the position I was in. You know. I trust you. I hope you’ll do the right thing. And he’s like, don’t worry, Brooke, I’ll take care of you. The whole song and dance. And he just kind of disappeared.”
What Brooke received in return, according to both her and Bubba: a pair of used flip flops, an old cross, and a couple of old t-shirts she does not remember her father wearing.
“I’ve asked. Meanwhile there’s 200 of Bonnie,” she said, her voice trailing into a larger point about the scope of what she was excluded from.
Bubba revealed that one of Hogan’s wrestling boots from WrestleMania 18, his match against The Rock in Toronto in March 2002, had sold on eBay for $236,000. He said he did not know who was behind the sale.
“His WrestleMania 18 boot that he wrestled the Rock in. One of them, not a pair. Sold for $236,000 on eBay now.”
Brooke said she has no original memorabilia from her father’s career.
“I’m calling Ronnie at the beach shop, and I’m like, do you have any memorabilia or anything that’s like original of my dad that I could buy as a fan? And Ronnie said, Nick has it all. I can’t get a belt, I can’t get anything. And I wouldn’t sell it either. I would never sell anything of my dad’s. And I told my dad that too. It’s really sad that I can’t even get something of his memorabilia to show my children one day.”
She said the only items she has are things she bought herself from a WrestleCon event years ago, and a workout shirt that Ronnie found in a drawer and mailed to her.
Nick also apparently did not extend a direct WrestleMania invitation to Brooke or her husband Steve Oleksy. She said she was told by Nick Kahn that an invitation was extended through her brother, but she and Steve were never included.
Brooke also noted that she recently had twins and was recovering from a C-section when her father was hospitalized and died. She said she was sending Nick her father’s medical notes from home during that period.
What Bubba Says He Knows
Bubba stated twice during the conversation that he is in possession of information he has not shared publicly, and suggested it is significant.
“Look at all the things that to this day I’ve stayed quiet about that I could burn the entire empire down with. There’s a couple of gimmicks that went down that, oh my god, there might be some people go to prison over it. But I’ve never said a word.”
Brooke said she is in a similar position, holding information she has chosen not to share out of respect for her father.
“I’m still protecting people that hurt me or that threw me under the bus. And I think it’s because morally, some of the stuff that you and I know is so vile or so bad or so personal that even on a moral compass I know that there’s things I know that I wouldn’t even tell Nick or Linda. It has nothing to do with them. It’s just something that would absolutely shock them to the point where it would rock their whole reality. It’s something I’m taking to my grave.”
A Final Note
Bubba closed the Brooke segment by recalling the most famous piece of advice Hulk Hogan ever gave him, one he said Hogan repeated often during workouts together.
“Your dad, this is one of his most infamous things, and I don’t know that you, as a little girl, if you ever heard it. He would say, the only easy day was yesterday. And that has lived with me forever.”
Brooke said she had never heard it.
The full interview aired on the Bubba the Love Sponge Show on April 23, 2026, and is available on his YouTube channel.
