Hidden Cameras + Wife Swapping + Bubba The Love Sponge + One Angry Billionaire With A Grudge = Hulk Hogan's $100+ Million Gawker Lawsuit

By the time you read this, you've probably heard the news that Hulk Hogan died earlier today at the age of 71 from an apparent cardiac arrest.

Hulk Hogan was famous for many things.

In the 1980s, he pretty much single-handedly transformed professional wrestling into a mainstream media empire, turning WrestleMania into must-see TV and helping launch the WWF (now WWE) into global superstardom. He was a movie star. A Saturday morning cartoon star. A product endorser. He released a rock album. In the 2000s, he became a reality TV star. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame not once, but twice. And in 2024, he was a keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention.

Oh, and according to some (thoroughly debunked) statements from Hulk himself:

• He was approached to be the original bass player in Metallica before the band settled on Cliff Burton.
• He was scouted by the Yankees while still in high school.
• At his peak, he wrestled 400 days in a single year thanks to the time changes between Japan and the US.

And whether he intended to or not, Hulk Hogan also played a pivotal role in one of the strangest media lawsuits in American legal history. A lawsuit that involves wife-swapping, a radio DJ named Bubba the Love Sponge, an angry billionaire with a grudge against a website, exaggerated claims about Hulk's penis size… and so much more…

(John Pendygraft-Pool/Getty Images)

Bubba & Hulk

To start this story out, you need to know that there is a Florida-based radio personality named Todd Clem. But, perhaps because "Todd Clem" doesn't exactly scream "cool ass DJ guy," Todd opted to go with the totally rad and not at all lame moniker, "Bubba the Love Sponge."

After a few years jumping around the country for gigs in Grand Rapids, San Antonio, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee, in 1992, Bubba found his sweet spot in Tampa, Florida.

Tampa wasn't just a good fit — it was the perfect ecosystem for the kind of shock-jock radio Bubba specialized in. The city already had a long history of rowdy, no-filter broadcasting, and Bubba quickly became a fixture on morning radio, building a loyal (and frequently scandalized) fanbase with his over-the-top stunts, raunchy humor, and constant boundary-pushing.

And Tampa happened to be Hulk Hogan's turf.

By the early 2000s, Hogan wasn't just a wrestling legend — he was a local deity in the Tampa Bay area. He lived in a waterfront mansion in nearby Clearwater, had his own beach shops, and was frequently spotted around town in his muscle cars, red bandana, and skin-tight tank tops. He was always tan. Always "on." His presence in Tampa was so constant that people joked you were more likely to see Hulk Hogan at the grocery store than your own neighbor.

So it was no surprise when Hulk and Bubba became close. Two Florida-born entertainment egos, each larger than life, each feeding off local celebrity and their own made-for-radio-and-TV personas. They were friends. They appeared on each other's shows. Hulk even gifted Bubba a wrestling-style championship belt engraved with "Radio World Champion."

And then things got… complicated.

Helping A Depressed Hulk

In January 2007, Bubba married a woman named Heather Cole at the First Baptist Church of St. Petersburg, Florida. Hulk was his best man. Hulk was already godfather to a son Bubba had from a previous relationship.

In the year leading up to Bubba and Heather's January 2007 wedding, Hulk's own marriage was in shambles. Hulk and Linda Hogan married in 1983. They had two children, Brooke and Nick. The whole family had recently become world-famous thanks to their hit reality series "Hogan Knows Best," which debuted on VH1 in January 2005.

But, despite the fame and the reality show that seemingly showed them as a happy couple, Hulk and Linda's marriage was on the rocks. Actually, it was headed for divorce. And Hulk knew it.

As Hulk would later claim in interviews, around 2006, he was extremely depressed and burned out from the trauma of his pending divorce. And what does any guy do for their best friend… the godfather of their child, their soon-to-be best man…. when that best friend is feeling down in the dumps? Maybe take him out for a beer and a steak… A round of golf… Catch a ball game together… Oh, and OBVIOUSLY you suggest your best friend cheer himself up by having sex with your fiancée. Speaking of which, here's a photo of Bubba and Heather at the 2009 AVN Awards:

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The Sex Tape

As Hulk would later claim in court testimony, Bubba gave his blessing and encouragement to have sex with Heather. Hulk also claimed that he was aware that Bubba had "an alternative lifestyle" and that Heather was "relentless' in her come-ons towards him. So, one day Hulk stops by Heather and Bubba's house, supposedly "just to say hello." And while he was there, yada yada yada… he finally agreed to have sex with Heather.

Unbeknownst to Hulk, there was a surveillance camera in the room, and his entire sexual encounter with Heather was surreptitiously recorded. Where was Bubba during the encounter? Away for the weekend? At work? Nope. He was home. In fact, in the video, Bubba can reportedly be heard telling Hulk and Heather that they can "do their thing" in the bedroom while he hangs out in his office. At one point in the video, Heather is giving Hulk oral sex, and Bubba reportedly keeps walking in and out of the room to say hi and see how things are going.

When the encounter is over and Hulk has left the building, the tape is still rolling, and Bubba reportedly can be heard saying, "If we ever need to retire, here is our ticket."

Gawker

For those of you who don't know — or are too young to remember — in the 2010 to 2014 range, Gawker.com was one of the biggest, most influential, and most controversial digital media outlets on the internet. It was snarky, shameless, and unfiltered. Gawker specialized in celebrity gossip, leaked documents, takedowns of powerful people, and whatever other stories traditional media wouldn't touch. Its unofficial motto might as well have been: "We publish what other people are afraid to."

At its peak, Gawker was valued at in the hundreds of millions and reportedly pulled in $50 million a year in revenue. It sat at the center of a small but loud media empire run by British-born journalist Nick Denton, who styled himself as a kind of anti-establishment visionary. Denton owned 30% of the Gawker empire, which also operated other sites like Deadspin (sports), Jezebel (feminism and culture), Gizmodo (tech), and Kotaku (gaming).

Gawker was beloved by many for its irreverent tone and fearless reporting. But it was also loathed — often by the very people it covered. It had a reputation for crossing ethical lines, sometimes gleefully. One of those people was early Facebook backer, turned venture capitalist billionaire, Peter Thiel. In 2007, a Gawker-owned site called Valleywag outed billionaire Peter Thiel as gay without his permission with an article that was cleverly titled "Peter Thiel is totally gay, people." Put a pin in this for a moment.

At some point in 2012, a Gawker editor named A.J. Daulerio published an article that featured an embedded two-minute extract of the sex tape, which included 10 seconds of very explicit sexual activity. Over several months, Hulk and Hulk's lawyers implored Gawker to take the video down. Hulk would later claim that had Gawker simply respected his request to delete the video, he would have let it all go. But they didn't.

The $100 Million Lawsuit

On October 15, 2012, Hogan filed a lawsuit against Gawker Media, its founder Nick Denton, and editor A.J. Daulerio.

The suit accused Gawker of invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and violation of his right to publicity. Hogan claimed that the article — and more importantly, the video — caused him immense emotional trauma, reputational harm, and "long-lasting humiliation."

This time, he wasn't asking for a quiet settlement. He wanted $100 million in damages.

Gawker's legal strategy was to argue that because Hogan was a public figure who had previously spoken about his sex life in interviews and on his reality show, the tape was "newsworthy" and therefore protected under the First Amendment. In their view, it wasn't revenge porn — it was journalism.

They also tried to claim that Hogan had previously made public comments contradicting the tape. Specifically, he had spoken openly in interviews about his sexual prowess and — more awkwardly — the size of his genitalia. In fact, during the trial, Gawker's legal team infamously argued that Hogan's public persona as "Hulk Hogan" was separate from the private individual "Terry Bollea," and that the tape showed Bollea, not the wrestler.

Yes, they tried to draw a legal distinction between Hulk Hogan's penis and Terry Bollea's penis.

And yes, that argument was made under oath in front of a jury.

The Trial and the $140 Million Judgment

The case went to trial in early 2016, and it was nothing short of surreal. Hogan's legal team argued that Gawker had crossed every imaginable line by publishing the tape without his consent. Gawker, for their part, stood firm in their defense that the tape was newsworthy, that Hogan had willingly lived in the public eye, and that he'd blurred the lines between his private life and public persona.

On March 18, 2016, the jury awarded Hulk Hogan $115 million in damages — $55 million for economic harm and $60 million for emotional distress.

A few days later, after brief deliberation, the same jury tacked on an additional $25 million in punitive damages, bringing the grand total to $140 million.

And here's where it got even more devastating for Gawker:

• Gawker Media was liable.
• Editor A.J. Daulerio was liable.
• And Nick Denton, the founder and CEO, was found personally liable for most of the $140 million.

The jury had clearly wanted to send a message: you can't just publish private sex tapes of celebrities — even loud, shirt-ripping, bandana-wearing ones — and call it journalism.

Within days, Denton was publicly scrambling to figure out how to save his company. In one interview, he admitted the damages were likely to "wipe us out." Gawker filed for bankruptcy protection and was put up for sale.

The Peter Thiel Reveal

Just two months after the verdict, Forbes dropped a bombshell: Hulk Hogan's lawsuit had been secretly bankrolled by Peter Thiel. And it was all out of spite over the 2007 article that outed him.

He reportedly spent $10 million funding Hogan's legal battle through a shadowy third-party legal funding outfit. At the time, neither Gawker nor the public had any idea he was involved.

The Bankruptcy, the Settlement, and the Final Payout

After the verdict, Gawker Media filed for bankruptcy in June 2016. A few weeks later, the company was sold at auction to Univision for $135 million. The sale included Gawker's various verticals — sites like Gizmodo, Jezebel, and Deadspin — but not the flagship site itself. Gawker.com was permanently shut down.

In the process, Gawker's finances became public. At the time, founder Nick Denton reported owning about 30% of the company, and claimed a paper net worth of $120 million. But once the verdict came down, Denton's fortune essentially evaporated overnight. He filed for personal bankruptcy on August 1, 2016, listing his assets as his apartment in New York and his equity in the now-sold Gawker empire. He listed his liabilities at $150 million.

Facing years of appeals and financial uncertainty, Hogan and his legal team ultimately agreed to a settlement in November 2016. The final payout?

• $31 million in cash, according to bankruptcy filings and court-approved documents.
• Plus access to a multi-party settlement fund that may have increased his total recovery to around $39 million.

It wasn't the full $140 million jury award — but it was still one of the largest individual payouts ever awarded in a media-related invasion of privacy case.

The lawsuit destroyed Gawker, cost Nick Denton his fortune, and sent a warning shot across the bow of digital media. From what I can tell, it was also the end of Hulk and Bubba and Heather's friendship. Bubba and Heather divorced in 2011.

The infamous mansion where the deed went down was put up for sale in 2017 for $1.8 million. Bubba sold it in March 2019 for $1.285 million. And because I had nothing better to do in the last 30 minutes, I found a video tour of the home from when Bubba first listed it in 2017. For some reason, it's decorated with lots of album sales trophies, notably a bunch of Creed album sales trophies. And I did finally relent and look up some screenshots of the sex tape to figure out which room the infamous deed went down in. It wasn't the master bedroom. From my scientific examination of the grainy sex tape footage and this video tour, I believe the dirty deed went down in the upstairs guest room, which is shown at the 2:45 mark: