Hulk Hogan’s case for privacy received $10m in funding
In 2016, Hulk Hogan settled his sex tape lawsuit for $31 million. After parts of the sex tape were leaked by a media company, Hogan made a claim for $140m in damages, for this invasion of privacy.
Fighting the lawsuit filed by the former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan was Gawker Media. The media company lost almost everything. Although they remained confident that they would win the appeal in the face of huge potential losses, the company was eventually forced to settle with Hogan.
According to court documents, Gawker settled with Terry G. Bollea (A.K.A Hulk Hogan) for $31 million, ending the multiyear dispute which has caused much difficulty for the media company.
The invasion of privacy lawsuit was filed by Hogan after portions of a sex tape were released by Gawker, an American blog. Faced with this $140 million judgment in the invasion of privacy lawsuit brought by Hogan, Gawker filed for bankruptcy in June 2016. Hogan’s claim was reportedly funded by Mr. Thiel, a founder of PayPal and one of the earliest investors in Facebook. The billionaire gave four years of litigation funding to the wrestler, totalling around $10 million, according to The New York Times.
It has been suggested that the billionaire funder offered Hogan litigation finance after he suffered at the hands of the gossip website. Mr. Thiel said he financed the case against Gawker because they published articles that “ruined people’s lives for no reason.” Nearly a decade ago, Mr. Thiel was outed as gay by Valleywag, one of Gawker’s now-defunct blogs. In a statement following the trial, Mr. Thiel said, “It is a great day for Terry Bollea and a great day for everyone’s right to privacy.”
More recently, Hogan brought a case against talk show hosts at Florida-based Cox Radio, who he accused of leaking the video showing him having sex with a friend’s wife and using racist slurs. Hogan was seeking $110m in damages from the talk show. The trial was meant to go to court in January 2021, however a confidential settlement was reached between the two parties.