In an emotional interview with ABC News, wrestling icon Hulk Hogan died that he is racist and suggested that using the n-word was just something he picked up from the environment he grew up in. The interview comes a month after Hogan was fired by the WWE for using racist language in a sex tape that leaked in 2012.
During the interview with Good Morning America’s Amy Robach, Hogan said he was not aware that he was being taped and that the sex tape was made at one of the lowest points of his life.
“I was completely broken and destroyed and said, ‘What's the easiest way out of this?' I mean, I was lost,” Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, said. When Robach asked if he was suicidal at the time, he said he was.
But when asked if he was racist, Hogan denied that.
"I'm not a racist but I never should have said what I said. It was wrong. I'm embarrassed by it,” he said. “People need to realize that you inherit things from your environment. And where I grew up was south Tampa, Port Tampa, and it was a really rough neighborhood, very low income. And all my friends, we greeted each other saying that word.”
He later begged his fans to forgive him. When asked he can forgive himself, he said that was easy since he, again, is not a racist.
Hogan told Robach that he was completely surprised by the WWE, which cut all ties with him and even erased him from their website. He called that “devastating.”
Hogan has filed a $100 million lawsuit against Gawker, which posted portions of the sex tape in 2012.
image courtesy of Walter McBride/INFphoto.com