Brooke Hogan and her father Hulk Hogan pictured together.
Brooke Hogan’s decision to distance herself from her father, wrestling icon Hulk Hogan, was rooted in the strain of their relationship rather than a disagreement with his third wife, Sky Daily, according to Brooke’s husband, Steven Oleksy.
Speaking to PEOPLE in August 2025, Oleksy said Brooke’s two-year estrangement from her father had “nothing to do with his new wife” and instead reflected what he described as the way Hulk treated his daughter. His comments came shortly after Hulk Hogan died at age 71 in July 2025, bringing renewed attention to the complicated family relationships surrounding the wrestling star.
Oleksy said Brooke continued to love her father deeply despite their separation and that watching the relationship deteriorate was difficult for both of them.
Steven Oleksy Says Brooke’s Estrangement Was About Her Relationship With Hulk
According to Oleksy, Brooke’s decision to stop communicating regularly with Hulk was not primarily a reaction to his marriage to Sky Daily.
“My wife will say it — it had nothing to do with his new wife. It had to do with the way he treated [Brooke],” Oleksy told PEOPLE.
He said Brooke had spent years supporting her father through difficult periods, including health problems and controversies that affected the family. Over time, Oleksy said that emotional burden became increasingly difficult for her.
His account portrays the estrangement as the result of a relationship that had become emotionally exhausting rather than a simple disagreement over Hulk’s romantic life.
Brooke had previously remained closely involved with her father, making the eventual distance between them particularly painful.
Brooke and Hulk Hogan’s Relationship Had Become Increasingly Complicated
The tension between Brooke and Hulk did not appear suddenly.
The father and daughter had shared years in the public eye, particularly during the family’s reality television era. Brooke became widely known through Hogan Knows Best, which followed Hulk, his then-wife Linda Hogan, Brooke and son Nick Hogan.
As the family relationships changed over the years, Brooke’s relationship with her father also became more complicated.
Oleksy said Brooke continued to care deeply about Hulk even after their communication deteriorated. He described her as someone who had made significant efforts to support her father and remain connected to him.
That history is important to understanding why the estrangement was so difficult.
Rather than simply walking away from a relationship she no longer valued, Brooke was dealing with a relationship she still cared about but found increasingly difficult to maintain.
Hulk Hogan Was Not at Brooke’s Wedding
One significant moment in the family’s history came when Brooke married former NHL player Steven Oleksy in June 2022.
Hulk did not attend the wedding and did not walk his daughter down the aisle.
According to Oleksy, Hulk told him that he did not “do weddings or funerals anymore.”
The absence was notable because Brooke and Hulk had previously shared a very public father-daughter relationship. Their family life had been documented for television audiences, making later disagreements even more visible to the public.
Oleksy said the problems between Brooke and Hulk later intensified following a series of phone conversations.
He described those conversations as containing disagreements and what he characterized as “mistruths,” ultimately becoming a breaking point in their relationship.
Brooke Also Stayed Away From Hulk’s Wedding to Sky Daily
Brooke did not attend Hulk Hogan’s wedding to Sky Daily in 2023.
That absence subsequently became part of public speculation about why Brooke had distanced herself from her father.
Oleksy, however, argued that the marriage itself was not the underlying reason for the estrangement.
He said Hulk had allowed a narrative to develop suggesting that Brooke’s decision was primarily connected to his new wife, but Oleksy disputed that explanation.
According to him, the deeper problem was the deterioration of Brooke’s relationship with her father.
The distinction matters because Brooke’s family situation was more complicated than a simple dispute between a daughter and her father’s new wife.
Brooke’s Support for Her Father Took an Emotional Toll
Oleksy also discussed the amount of support Brooke had given Hulk throughout their relationship.
He said she loved her father deeply and had continued to be there for him despite the difficulties surrounding their family.
Hulk’s long career had also brought controversies that affected those closest to him. One of the most widely reported incidents involved a leaked recording in which he used racial slurs while discussing his daughter’s former boyfriend. The incident led to Hulk being removed from the WWE Hall of Fame for a period before he was later reinstated.
For Brooke, Oleksy said the experience of supporting her father through difficult circumstances had taken an emotional toll.
He described a situation in which she could love her father while also recognizing that their relationship was causing her significant distress.
That tension ultimately became central to the family’s estrangement.
Oleksy Tried to Keep the Door Open
During the two years when Brooke was separated from her father, Oleksy said he continued communicating with members of the Hogan family.
His goal, he explained, was partly to understand whether he should help repair the relationship or focus on protecting his wife and their immediate family.
Oleksy said that each conversation with Hulk ultimately made him more convinced that his priority needed to be supporting Brooke.
He described navigating the situation as challenging, particularly because he could see how much Brooke continued to care about her father.
For Oleksy, supporting Brooke did not mean encouraging her to abandon her family. Instead, he said he tried to respect the decisions she made while remaining supportive of the relationships she wanted to maintain.
Brooke’s Love for Her Father Remained Complicated
Despite the estrangement, Oleksy emphasized that Brooke’s feelings for Hulk were not simply erased.
He said she loved her father “very, very much” and continued to carry the emotional weight of their relationship.
That sentiment was also reflected in Brooke’s own public comments following Hulk’s death.
In a statement shared after his passing, Brooke described their relationship as complicated and said their separation followed a series of private conversations and disagreements. She also indicated that she had tried to support her father through numerous medical procedures before eventually stepping away from the relationship.
Her comments provided additional context to the idea that the estrangement was not simply a family feud over one particular person or event.
Instead, it developed over time.
The Family Was Also Adjusting to Life With New Twins
At the center of Brooke and Oleksy’s life during this period were their young children.
The couple welcomed twins, Oliver Andrew and Molly Gene, in January 2025. The children were born several months before Hulk’s death.
Oleksy said the family was focused on raising their children and creating a supportive environment for them.
He described the twins as a source of happiness during an extremely difficult period and said the couple wanted to take what they had learned from their family experiences into their own parenting.
For Oleksy, that meant making sure their son and daughter understood how deeply they were loved.
Hulk Hogan Never Met Brooke’s Twins
The estrangement also meant Hulk did not have the opportunity to meet Brooke and Oleksy’s twins before his death.
According to later comments from Oleksy, the couple attempted to arrange contact after the children were born, but the meeting did not happen.
That became another painful element of the family’s already complicated history.
Hulk died on July 24, 2025, after authorities responded to a cardiac arrest call at his home in Clearwater, Florida. He was 71.
Brooke did not publicly attend to the family dispute in the immediate aftermath of his death, while Oleksy and people close to her spoke about the difficulty of the period.
The Sky Daily Question Remains More Complicated
While Oleksy firmly said Brooke’s estrangement was not caused by Sky Daily, later public comments from Brooke added another layer to the story.
In an August 2025 interview reported by E! News, Brooke discussed concerns she had raised with her father about Daily’s alleged ties to Scientology before Hulk’s 2023 wedding. Brooke said she had urged her father to be cautious, while also saying she had no personal problem with Daily.
That later account means the circumstances should not be reduced to a single explanation.
Oleksy’s August 2 comments specifically framed the estrangement as being about how Hulk treated Brooke. Brooke’s later remarks show that she also had concerns surrounding her father’s marriage and Daily.
Those accounts can coexist, but they do not establish that there was one simple reason for the breakdown in the father-daughter relationship.
Brooke and Steven Oleksy Focus on Their Own Family
After years of navigating complicated family dynamics, Oleksy said he and Brooke were trying to focus on their immediate family and the people who supported them.
He described their friends and loved ones as an important support system and said the couple wanted to carry the lessons of their experiences into raising their children.
For Brooke, the story of her relationship with Hulk Hogan is therefore not simply one of estrangement.
It is also the story of a daughter who continued to care about her father while deciding that creating distance was necessary for her own emotional well-being.
Oleksy’s comments offer his perspective on why that decision was made, while Brooke’s own statements show that the circumstances were personal, complicated and developed over time.
