Hulk Hogan just announced a divorce from his second wife, Jennifer McDaniel. Here’s everything to know about her and the former wrestler’s previous marriage.
Hulk Hogan, 68, has divorced his second wife Jennifer McDaniel, 47. The retired wrestling star, née Terry Eugene Bollea, confirmed the news after fans began to inquire about a new woman appearance in his social media posts. Hulk revealed the woman is, in fact, his new girlfriend named Sky.
Here’s everything to know about Jennifer, what happened with their divorce, and all about Hulk’s first marriage to Linda Hogan.
Who is Jennifer McDaniel?
Jennifer McDaniel, Hulk Hogan (Peter Brooker/Shutterstock).Jennifer McDaniel, born May 13, 1974, is Hulk’s second wife. Hulk met Jennifer, a former makeup artist, in 2008 after his divorce from Linda and the pair got engaged soon thereafter. Jennifer was a prominent makeup artist in Hollywood and was even nominated for a Saturn Award for the Best Make-Up Artist for the movie Let Me In. The couple ultimately walked down the aisle on Dec. 28, 2010 in a private, intimate ceremony in the backyard of their Clearwater, Florida home. They do not have any children together, and kept their relationship out of the limelight, but Jennifer did make several appearances in Hulk’s Instagram for vacations, shopping trips, and the like.
Although many were skeptical about their relationship due to Jennifer being about 20 years Hulk’s junior, they managed to stay together even through difficult trials, such as Hulk’s sex scandal with Heather Clem, his friend’s wife, where their sex tape was released by media outlet Gawker. The incident lead to a lengthy lawsuit that ultimately lead to the company going bankrupt.
It wasn’t until Feb. 28 when Hulk shared the finality of his separation from Jennifer via his Twitter account. “Yo Maniacs just for the record, the Facebook and Instagram posts are of me and my girlfriend Sky,” he wrote. “I am officially divorced, sorry I thought everyone already knew, love my Maniacs4Life.” Hulk filed for divorce in Oct. 2021, per court documents obtained by TMZ, with the split being finalized late last year.
Linda Hogan
Linda & Hulk Hogan (Gregory Pace/BEI/Shutterstock).Linda Hogan was Hulk’s first wife and they were together for over 24 years. Linda was born Linda Marie Claridge on August 24, 1959 in Los Angeles, California. She and Hulk met at a restaurant in LA in the early eighties and maintained a long-distance relationship for two years over the phone. They tied the knot in 1983 and their wedding was attended by numerous other professional wrestlers at the time like Andre the Giant, Vince McMahon, and more.
Although Linda sang back-up vocals in the Hulk’s Wrestling Boot Band in the ’90s, she didn’t truly rise to fame until 2005 when she and the Hogan kids, Brooke, born 1988, and Nick, born 1990, joined Hulk for the VH1 reality show Hogan Knows Best which documented their lives. Linda ultimately filed for divorce in 2007 and their divorce was finalized in 2009, after which Linda released a memoir Wrestling the Hulk: My Life Against the Ropes which detailed elements of her marriage and Hulk’s violent past. In the 2011 memoir, Linda shared some harrowing details of her time with the former pro-wrestler.
“[Hulk] tore my shirt. He threw lamps. He held me down on the bed with his hands around my throat during arguments, slamming doors, pounding walls,” she wrote, per Us Weekly. “I was always afraid he would kill me in one of his rages.” In addition to the memoir, Linda’s publicist told E! News in 2008 that Linda filed for divorce because of Hulk’s affair with Christiane Plante, aka their daughter Brooke’s close friend. Although Hulk’s publicist claimed Linda was making the accusation for “attention,” Christiane later confirmed the relationship to the National Enquirer in 2008, alleging that she and the Hulk’s relationship started when he and Linda “privately” knew their marriage was ending.
After her divorce, Linda made headlines by dating a much younger man, Charley Hill (he was 19, she was 48 when they started dating in 2008). Although he proposed in 2021 during an episode of Couple’s Therapy on VH1, the two never married and he ended up filing a $1.5 million lawsuit in 2014 for chores he performed, including waxing her yacht, fertilizing 25 acres of avocado trees, and more.