Hulk Hogan said in an interview this week that he would have stopped at nothing to fight Gawker in court after the site posted a sex tape in 2012. Hogan has already been award over $100 million by a jury, which sided with him after he sued the site.
Last week, a jury in St. Petersburg, Florida awarded Hogan $115 million. On March 22, he was awarded $25 million in punitive damages. In total, Hogan was awarded $140 million, $40 million more than what he sought. Gawker has vowed to appeal the decision.
“I told my wife, I said, ‘If I had to get my situation where I had to sell everything and borrow money and do whatever, I will not stop. They actually picked the wrong guy,” Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, told ABC News in his first TV interview since the verdict. “I don't know how to tell you, I took it real personal.”
Hogan said that he thought Gawker assumed he could not afford to keep the case going, but he wasn’t going to give up easily. “I felt like I had this monster on my shoulders no matter where I went,” he said.
Later, Hogan explained that he believed that he was making the right decision by suing Gawker. Even if he lost, he still believed that the case would expose the site.
“I exposed them a million times over, and what they do, and then how they, you know, treat people, and how they look at the world. Which, to me, is very, very scary,” Hogan said.
The sex tape showed Hogan having sex with Heather Clem, who was married to Florida radio shock jock Bubba ‘The Love Sponge’ Clem at the time. Hogan was also married to his ex-wife Linda at the time. Bubba filmed the tape without Hogan;s knowledge. The former wrestler insists that he is now a different person.
“Even when I was there it didn't feel like the right thing to do. But I did it anyway,” Hogan told ABC News. “That's very humiliating, very embarrassing. And the only thing I can say is I pray to God that people can learn from my mistake. Because I sure did. I sure learned.”