Brooke Hogan Felt ‘Powerless’ in Final Months of Dad Hulk Hogan’s Life, Breaks Down Family Dynamics
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Brooke Hogan reflected on the difficult, fraught end of her father Hulk Hogan’s life — and emotionally discussed where things stand now with her mother, Linda, and brother, Nick.
In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Brooke, 37 — who acknowledged she “didn’t speak” to her father for “two years” before he died in July 2025 — recalled how her vocal distaste for Hulk’s inner circle ultimately led to their estrangement.
“He said, ‘You go this way, I go that way,’” said Brooke, who stars on season 7 of HGTV’s Rock the Block. “That hurt. I think that’s what makes me the most annoying member of my family. They know that I will just beat you up until you do the right thing. I could see what was happening with him with the people around him. I could also see his potential and see how life could be. And he just wasn’t there.”
Brooke continued, “I was pregnant with my twins. I was newly married. I just had to take a break.”
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Brooke welcomed twins Oliver and Molly in January 2025 with her husband, former NHL player Steve Oleksy, whom she married in June 2022.
Hulk died after suffering a heart attack at his home in Florida. He was 71 years old.
“I don’t know if we would have ever reconnected, even if he were alive, because of the mindset he was in,” Brooke said. “He would have had to have a change of mindset and a change of company. I don’t know if he was there. I don’t know if he was willing to do that.”
At the time of his death, Hulk was married to his third wife, Sky Daily. The pair tied the knot in September 2023, however, Brooke did not mention Daily by name.
“You feel so powerless,” Brooke said of those final years. “It’s such a tangled web, too. It’s dangerous talking about, criticizing certain people. You just kind of have to shut up and let people make their own decisions because it was becoming too gnarly.”
As the one-year anniversary of Hulk’s death approaches, Brooke can now, at least partially, look at the events that transpired through a bit of a bittersweet lens.
“I’m glad he’s out of pain. I know he was in a lot of pain,” Brooke said about her father. “In a weird way, I feel like I have a better relationship with him now. I find myself just talking to him and saying all the things I wish I could have said.”
She continued, “He was kind of tough. It was hard to have tender moments with him because he just didn’t want to talk about it.”
While Brooke has managed to find peace with her late father, the same cannot be said for her relationship with her mother, Linda, with whom she had a public falling out last year.
In March 2025, Linda posted via her Instagram Story that Brooke “doesn’t talk to us” and claimed her daughter “didn’t tell us” when she got married or had her twins.
Brooke responded via Instagram, explaining the decision to cut off her parents came after she had allegedly been “verbally and mentally abused since childhood.”
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“That’s a really tough one,” Brooke said. “I’m always like, ‘I didn’t ask for this. Please stop bringing me into it.’ And then somehow I always get brought into it. When it started to be things that weren’t true, I was like, ‘That’s not true.’ No child wants to not have their parents. It has to be serious enough to make that decision.”
Brooke said Linda recently sent a text to her husband, Steve, that was “so cruel and so brutal that if there was any chance at reconciliation, that shut the door completely.”
“I don’t know why a family of mine would hate me when they know my heart,” Brooke pondered. “It’s crazy. The divorce [between Hulk and Linda, which was finalized in 2009] caused a lot of triangulation. You’re dealing with two people who were probably soulmates, but with a lot of love comes a lot of hate.”
She continued, “I do think, as crazy as it was, my parents were 100 percent soulmates and they both absolutely spiraled once they lost each other. Their crazy was each other’s crazy.”
Brooke explained that her relationship with her younger brother, Nick, managed to get caught in the crossfire.
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“The saddest thing about broken families is the siblings,” Brooke said. “The siblings suffer the most because you’re always forced to take a side. Nick and I, even though we had the same parents, we had two very different upbringings and two very different experiences. That is one thing my parents always said: ‘You guys are siblings, you always have to have each other’s back.’ No matter what trouble my brother gets into, no matter what he does or who he is, that’s my brother.”
She added, “Even if we don’t talk — because I haven’t felt supported by him in times where I really needed to feel that, sometimes I feel like he saw the same things I did and wouldn’t be a united front, that’s the thing that hurts me the most — but my brother is a very kind person. He’s very smart. He loves animals. There’s just so many great things about him and so many things that I love.”
Optimistically, Brooke concluded, “That’s my little brother and that will never change. He’s got a big sister ‘til the end.”
While family drama continues to sort itself out, Brooke is making major strides in her professional career on the 7th season of HGTV’s Rock the Block, which pairs top designers with celebrities, like Brooke, who share a passion for design.
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“I got a lot of flack when people found out I was going to be on Rock the Block right after my dad had passed,” Brooke admitted. “But what they didn’t know is that I had already signed the deal. We were already in talks for a long time before my dad passed. It wasn’t like I was just jumping on the train.”
With the help of her childhood best friend and Brooke Knows Best costar, Ashley Menendez, Brooke launched Nashville interior design firm BB Designs by Brooke in 2018.
“I grinded, it was really hard,” Brooke said of becoming an entrepreneur. “Rock the Block was like a medal of honor. I think any designer would be like, ‘Hell yeah.’ This shows I’ve got the chops. They’re actually taking me seriously. It was really cool to get that call.”
Rock the Block airs on HGTV Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
