By YOLANDA FERNANDEZ | News Channel 8
and Stephen Thompson | Tampa Tribune, photo Wally Patanow

 

 

 

After months of bitter accusations and cross-accusations, former professional wrestler Hilk Hogan and Linda Bollea quietly settled their divorce this morning. The terms were not made public. Signs that all had changed began when Bollea entered the courtroom and gave Hogan a peck on the cheek. Then, each signed a document signifying their marriage was dissolved and they had reached a confidential settlement. Then, each testified they had disclosed all their assets and believed the other's assets had been disclosed. The brief, civil proceeding stood in stark contrast to what has been an especially acrimonious series of moves and countermoves, even in the often-vicious annals of divorce.

Over the last 18 months, Bollea had accused Hogan of trying to hide millions of dollars in assets and of stalking her, and at one point, she placed a photo in the divorce file of Hogan lifting his crutches in the air at an event, implying he had overstated a temporary disability. Hogan, for his part, tried in court to prevent Bollea's boyfriend from driving any of the family vehicles. And Hogan's lawyers last month, in an attempt to persuade the presiding judge to lower his $40,000 a month in temporary alimony payments, put witnesses on the stand who said Bollea was using the money for drugs. But after the brief hearing this morning, each vowed their love for one another, even though each has taken up with someone else, and they said they envisioned circumstances where they could behave like a normal family again with their children.

While settlement discussions have gone on for some time, Bollea's attorney, Raymond Rafool, said final details had been worked out Monday night.Both Bollea and Hogan said they wanted to move on with their lives and their careers. Bollea described herself as an out-of-work actress. Hogan joked that perhaps he could land a job with his friend, radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, perhaps starting out as an intern. "The war is over," Bollea said after the hearing. "I still love him. He's the father of my children. … We're trying to be a family one more time."

She plans to move to California. Hogan said he wasn't sure yet where he was going to end up. Their daughter, Brooke Bollea, whose stage name is Brooke Hogan, lives in Miami. Their son, Nick Bollea, lives in Los Angeles. "We have good things to look forward to: weddings and grandkids and things like that that we need to be amicable about," Linda Bollea said. "He can still go on with his own life and I can go on with mine, but when it comes to kids, we're very much parents together." Bollea said she wanted to apologize for what she called "the mockery" she and her ex-husband generated in the world of tabloid journalism. Bollea and Hogan frequently said disparaging things about each another in public or to journalists."Divorce is a weird thing," she said. "It just got out of control." Now, she believes the former couple can serve as "better role models for other people in the divorce situation because there is a silver lining to every cloud.""It's just been embarrassing," she said. Hogan, in his own mini news conference after the hearing, echoed Bollea's sentiments, saying "It's time to get down to business. I'm glad we can finally function as a family." He also described himself as "a free man."

"This is the way it should have been 18 months ago," Hogan said. "Everybody started going crazy. Cooler heads prevailed. "When you've been married to somebody for 23 years and you're crazy in love and you had children with them, it's a situation where you wish for the best, but we have so many tough things going on with business and situations that happened, you know, we just got torn apart." While the terms to the divvying up of assets were not disclosed, Hogan said the family had accumulated quite a few things, and an effort had to be made that everyone was taken care of. The couple own at least two pieces of property – the family mansion in Belleair, and a beach house overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in Clearwater – as well as an array of vehicles, stocks and insurance assets. Last year, Bollea said in court documents that the value of the couple's estate approached $27 million. Hogan was the first to broach the subject of a settlement, approaching Bollea after a deposition, Bollea said. Even the opposing attorneys hugged each other after the hearing.