Summary: Hogan claims in his first testimony in his lawsuit against Gawker that he was unaware of the tape and never authorized it to be made.
The case against Gawker for a leaked sex tape involving Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, started out with a bang. Hogan didn’t hold back on any claims against radio personality Bubba “the Love Sponge” Clem and his wife Heather.
Read Hulk Hogan Lawsuit Against Gawker Moves to Jury Selection for more information.
Hogan started out his testimony referencing a phone conversation he had with Bubba about his wife wanting to have sex with Hogan, which he thought was a joke. Bubba and his wife Heather have an open marriage according to Hogan. Eventually Hogan and Heather did arrange to have sex, when Bubba reportedly gave Hogan a condom. It was then that Hogan says he knew something was off, asking repeatedly if he was being taped.
Bubba denied that any taping was taking place but Hogan alluded to the fact that he should have known better based on Bubba’s personality. He described him as “arrogant, cocky, nasty to people on the phone.” Despite this Hogan and Bubba were close friends, “We became so close that we started training every day together. We just did everything together, to the point where we helped my daughter with her music. He helped my son with the stuff he wanted to do, and I went through a really tough time when my father passed away…I believed in my heart he was my best friend.”
In his testimony, Hogan states he was not aware of the sex tape until TMZ called him about it. He called it “completely humiliating.” It was also then that he learned that Bubba was the believed source of the tape.
Gawker argues that Hogan is not entitled to privacy because he was “more than willing to talk about his sex life – including in two autobiographies, a reality TV series and Howard Stern’s radio show – until he didn’t like what Gawker had to say. Now he wants $100 million as compensation. Compare that with the $5,000 settlement that Bubba paid Hulk for the actual taping.”
The video gained 7 million hits.
Photo: youtube.com