Brooke Hogan said her relationship with her late father, Hulk Hogan, changed permanently after he slept with one of her best friends, Christiane Plante. Although Brooke, 38, said she forgave her father, she believed their bond shifted after the affair and became even more complicated following her parents’ divorce.
Brooke Hogan says Hulk Hogan sleeping with her friend Christiane Plante permanently changed their father-daughter relationship
Brooke told Us Weekly exclusively, “A major turning point came after he slept with my friend Christiane [Plante].” She continued, “I forgive people very easily — sometimes probably too easily — and I forgave him, but something between us changed afterward. I don’t think he ever related to me in quite the same way again.”
Plante confirmed the affair with Hulk to the National Enquirer in 2008. She said it happened when he and his estranged wife, Linda, “privately knew their marriage was ending.” Linda filed for divorce in 2007 after 24 years of marriage, and the divorce was finalized in 2009. Hulk, who died of a heart attack in July 2025, also shared son Nick with Linda.
Brooke said, “Then the divorce happened, and our entire family structure changed.” She explained that their relationship became increasingly complicated until the bond she once believed could survive anything could no longer withstand what was happening around them.
Brooke also pushed back against the simplified public image of her family. “Public perception reduces families into heroes and villains. Real families aren’t that simple,” she said. She described a mix of “tremendous love” alongside “dysfunction, fear, resentment, enormous betrayal, money, fame, image management and decades of unresolved hurt.”
Still, Brooke stressed that she could acknowledge the pain in their relationship without erasing the good memories. “I can love my father profoundly and still tell the truth about where he hurt me,” she said. “Both things can be true.”
Despite their later estrangement, Brooke remembered Hulk as “an excellent father to me for a very long time.” She added, “The foundation between my dad and me was incredibly strong” and recalled, “As a little girl, I felt incredibly safe with my dad. I adored him. I have wonderful memories with him.”
