Hulk Hogan and Gawker reached a multimillion-dollar settlement over the former wrestler’s sex tape lawsuit, the New York Times confirmed on Wednesday, November 2.
According to court documents obtained by the news outlet, Hogan (real name: Terry Bollea) settled with the website for $31 million. The settlement comes less than eight months after Hogan, 63, was awarded $140 million in damages after Gawker, in 2012, published a two-minute clip from a video of the WWE legend having sex with his friend Bubba the Love Sponge’s wife, Heather Clem, in 2006.
Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley-based billionaire businessman, was financing Hogan’s lawsuit, which forced Gawker to file for bankruptcy and shut the site down in 2016.
“After four years of litigation funded by a billionaire with a grudge going back even further, a settlement has been reached,” Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. ”All-out legal war with Thiel would have cost too much, and hurt too many people, and there was no end in sight. Gawker’s nemesis was not going away.”
Aside from financial compensation, the article detailing Hogan’s relations with his pal’s wife will be removed from the now-defunct site, the New York Times reports.
“As with any negotiation for resolution, all parties have agreed it is time to move on,” David Houston, a member of Hogan’s legal team, said in a statement.
Back in March, the Hogan Knows Best alum opened up to Good Morning America about his first legal victory against Gawker.
“[Gawker] was hoping that, financially, I wouldn't be able to stay in the game with them, and I'd quit or tap out or something,” he explained. “I felt like I had this monster on my shoulders no matter where I went.”
