Hulk Hogan wraps up season two of NBC’s “American Gladiators” on Monday night — a show which has been a bright spot in Hulk’s otherwise chaotic personal life.
His 24-year marriage to wife Linda is headed for divorce, but now, in a new interview with “Access Hollywood’s” Maria Menounos, Hogan shows signs of regrets.
“As crazy as that sounds to say, I wish I was still with my wife,” Hogan told Menounos.
The stunning admission comes after everything he and his estranged wife, Linda, have been through — and one that could intensify certain speculation.
“There have been rumors that maybe this divorce was a ploy to protect your assets,” Menounos said.
“If this is a ploy, her being intimate with a 19-year-old kid is pretty good acting,” Hogan said.
Several have suggested that the Hogans split up to protect their money (Hogan is worth tens of millions of dollars) after they were sued by the family of the boy permanently injured in 18-year-old Nick Hogan’s car wreck.
Hogan squashes that speculation, citing in particular, his pain over Linda, now dating a 19-year-old, who Hogan claims lives in the home the family once shared.
“For me to be able to handle… my 50-year-old wife sleeping in a bed with a 19-year-old boyfriend and using my gym, and driving my cars, and living in my house. I guess we’ve got a pretty good act going on ’cause that’s a lot to take on,” Hogan said.
Hogan claims the divorce was 100 percent Linda’s idea.
“It wasn’t an argument, it was, ‘Hey, I don’t love you, I don’t want to be with you, I don’t want to see you anymore.’ It was the real deal,” Hogan said.
“Just out of the blue?” Menounos asked.
“Yeah, well you know, we’d had problems over the last 10 years but, you know, I thought that when you put your hand on the Bible, you know, until death do us part and for better or worse, I thought people really meant that when they said it,” he admitted.
And things have turned ugly, with negotiations stretching on.
“This is a simple divorce — there’s no custody, there’s just a big pile of junk that we’ve accumulated. We should split it however the judge wants it and walk away, but, you know, my wife’s lawyer has told different magazines there’s gonna be a war,” he said. “This is the money that I saved for my family, and money that Linda could walk away with, money that I saved for my children, that they’re just, they’re just wasting (it) and burning (it) up.”