'HE DIDN'T WANT ME THERE': The heartbreaking final chapter of Hulk Hogan and daughter Brooke's broken relationship

The pair had not spoken for two years before his death — a quiet, creeping estrangement that had no single dramatic flashpoint, but years of accumulated hurt behind it.

Brooke, now 37, had once been inseparable from her father.

The pair starred together on the hit VH1 reality series Hogan Knows Best and she had stood by him through nearly 25 surgeries over the course of his health struggles.

But somewhere in those final years, the door closed.

"It was like there was a force field around him that I couldn't get through," Brooke wrote in an emotional Instagram post days after his death.

Her husband, former NHL player Steven Oleksy, was more direct when he spoke to People magazine, saying the breakdown came down to one thing: "The way he treated her."

He described a series of phone calls in which things were said, that proved impossible to turn back.

A particularly raw moment came in 2022, when Hulk skipped Brooke's wedding entirely, reportedly telling Oleksy he "doesn't do weddings or funerals anymore."

The following year, Hulk married his third wife, Sky Daily at a ceremony Brooke also missed. The estrangement was complete by then.

Brooke was at pains to stress the rift was not caused by Sky Daily, as some had speculated.

"It had nothing to do with his new wife," Oleksy confirmed.

The family's fractures had been playing out publicly for some time.

In March 2025, just months before Hulk's death, his ex-wife Linda Hogan posted an emotional Instagram video claiming Brooke had cut ties with her around eight years earlier, blaming Hulk for the mother-daughter rift.

Brooke fired back, stating she had "been EXTREMELY verbally and mentally abused since childhood."

She also clarified that her reasons for distancing from each parent were entirely separate.

The financial settlement after Hulk's death added another layer of pain. He left an estimated $5 million estate, entirely to son Nick.

Brooke said she had asked to be excluded, a request that appeared to have been honoured in full.

In her tribute, Brooke wrote that she felt she now had a better relationship with her father than she did in his final years — finding herself talking to him, saying things she never got the chance to say while he was alive.

"I don't know if we would have ever reconnected, even if he were alive," she said.

"He would have had to have a change of mindset and a change of company."