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World of Sport

19th Mar 2016

Hulk Hogan awarded an absolute fortune in lawsuit over sex tape

Conan Doherty

Hulk Hogan has been awarded $115 million in damages after suing a website over a published sex tape.

The wrestling legend was featured on Gawker having sex with Heather Cole who was wife of Bubba Clem at the time, a friend of Hogan’s. The video was posted in 2012.

The verdict was reached by a Florida jury on Friday after Hogan’s legal team argued that his privacy was violated and that the video which the New York-based gossip website published was not newsworthy.

Hogan was awarded $115 million in damages after a reported six-hour deliberation from the jury.

“This is not only his victory today, but also anyone else who’s been victimised by tabloid journalism,” Hogan’s lawyer David Houston said after the case of freedom of the press versus a celebrity’s right to privacy.

Despite the verdict, the Gawker team are adamant that they will appeal the case after “key evidence and the most important witness were both improperly withheld from this jury.”