Brooke Hogan is opening up about one of the most painful chapters in her relationship with her late father, saying the fallout from Hulk Hogan’s leaked sex tape affected far more than his public image.
In a new interview with Us Weekly, Brooke said the attention surrounding the scandal largely focused on sympathy for Hogan, while she and her then-boyfriend, Yannique Barker, were left to deal with the personal consequences.
“That was so rough,” Brooke said. “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.”
The tape, which surfaced publicly in 2015 after excerpts were published online, included Hogan making racist comments about Barker, who was dating Brooke at the time. During the recording, Hogan repeatedly used a racial slur and admitted he was “racist, to a point.”
Brooke said the release of those comments changed the course of her relationship with Barker.
“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.”
The controversy became one of the defining moments of Hogan’s later life. WWE cut ties with him after the comments became public, though he later returned to make several appearances before his death in July 2025.
Hogan ultimately won a major legal battle against Gawker in 2016, receiving a judgment tied to the unauthorized release of the tape.
But Brooke now says the legal victory never addressed the damage done within the family.
Her husband, former NHL player Steve Oleksy, previously said that much of Hogan’s estate came from that lawsuit. After Hogan’s death, Oleksy said Brooke had no interest in claiming money connected to the case because it stemmed from comments that deeply hurt her.
Earlier this year, Oleksy said the money “did not represent accomplishments in the ring,” but instead came from a scandal that caused lasting pain for Brooke and others close to her.
Previously, Brooke spoke about the estrangement that existed between her and Hogan in the final years of his life. The two had not spoken for roughly two years before his death.
“He said, ‘You go this way, I go that way,’” Brooke recalled. “That hurt.”
Despite everything that happened, Brooke said there has been one unexpected source of healing: she recently reconnected professionally with SoBe Entertainment, a company founded by Barker’s father. Now, years after the scandal that tore them apart, Brooke said their families have found peace in a different way.
“Our babies met, and my husband and Yannique are friends,” she said. “All the parts of my heart are coming back together.”
