Brooke Hogan Reveals Why She Skipped Hulk's Funeral

Brooke Hogan, the daughter of late WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan, revealed why she skipped her father's funeral in a post shared on her Instagram account.

Brooke, 37, claimed her father "hated the morbidity of funerals" and decided to honor his memory by taking her 6-month-old twins to his favorite beach on the same day her father's funeral was held.

"My father hated the morbidity of funerals. He didn't want one. And although I know people grieve in many ways - and I'm so grateful for all celebrations and events organized to honor him, as his daughter, I had to make my own decision to honor him the best and most genuine way I knew how...privately...the way that made me feel the closest to him. The only thing missing today was him in is pop up lawn chair watching the waves... and the sunset 💔," Brooke wrote on her Instagram account Tuesday (August 6).

"Daddy, we honored you in the simplest way that agreed with my soul. We took our babies to the beach, and put them in the same salty waters you loved. Molly loved the water. I think she'll be a "little fish" as you called me. We love you and honor the things that made you so special. Every grain of sand and every wave reminded me of being your beach baby, and brought us closer to you. I pray you are at peace and know how dearly I love you.

"Rest in heaven, Daddy❤️."

Brooke's post was shared on the same day as her interview with her father's longtime friend Bubba the Love Sponge in which she revealed why she removed herself from his will in 2023.

“I was now pregnant with twins and married, and my husband’s family is so kind and so sweet. And I have something to lose, money didn’t matter,” Brooke said. “I was sobbing, and I just said, ‘Take me off everything, I don’t want to be a part of it.’”

Brooke said she was concerned about getting into a potential financial battle with her mother, Linda, and Hulk's third wife, Sky Daily, prior to his death. The former Brooke Knows Best star said her mother "has been known to kind of find herself in the mix with things like that" and had heard that Daily was a Scientologist and had "powerful backing" within the organization.

“I’m like, ‘I don’t want to fight Linda, I don’t want to find Scientology, I don’t want somebody that I love to get knocked off, I don’t know how deep this stuff goes,’” Brooke said. “It scared me, and I just said, ‘I want out.’”

Brooke clarified that she had "no problem" with Daily, who she said was always nice to her, but hoped her father would have trusted her with his intellectual property and trademarks as she "would have done the right thing."

“I would have made him an Elvis [Presley] legacy, or a Marilyn Monroe legacy, or a Selena [Quintanilla-Perez] legacy,” she said. “And I hope that whoever has his marks does that. I just know that the people around him are pretty shady and not in his best interest.”

Brooke's husband, former professional hockey player Steven Olesky, said the "challenging" relationship between his wife and her late father broke down over a "series of phone calls" in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE published last Saturday (August 2). Olesky said "there were some things said, and a lot of mistruths," but also emphasized that the rift wasn't caused by Hulk's wife as rumors suggested.

“My wife will say it — it had nothing to do with his new wife,” Olesky said via PEOPLE. “It had to do with the way he treated her.”

Hulk skipped Brooke's 2022 wedding, with Olesky claiming he told him he “doesn’t do weddings or funerals anymore" before his own wedding to daily, one year later, which Brooke had also missed, leading to their estrangement. Olesky said he “remained in contact with members of her family to try to keep that door open and understand if I should protect my wife or try to mend the relationship.”

The former hockey player added that Brooke's support of her father had "really taken a toll on her," which included Hulk using the N-word multiple times while discussing his daughter's ex-boyfriend in a leaked sex tape audio recorded in 2012 that leaked in 2015.

“It was a situation where she loved her dad very, very much,” Olesky said.

WWE confirmed Hulk Hogan's death in tribute posts shared on its social media account following TMZ Sports' initial report on July 24.

Hogan's cause of death was officially ruled to be a heart attack, according to Pinellas County Forensic Science Center documents obtained by Page Six on Thursday (July 31). The legendary wrestler reportedly had a history of atrial fibrillation (AFib), which is categorized in patients with an irregular and often rapid heart rate, as well as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), a cancer that affects white blood cells, though the diagnosis that wasn't previously revealed to the public.

The Hulk Hogan character is one of the most well-known in the history of professional wrestling, leading WWE to become a global enterprise in the 1980s as the face of the company during its popularity boom. Bollea was a five-time WWE (then-WWF) Champion, which included a 1,474-day reign as the longest of the WrestleMania era and a six-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, where he was the leader of the New World Order as 'Hollywood' Hulk Hogan during his tenure with the now-defunct promotion.

Hogan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame twice as both an individual and as a member of the faction.