Linda Hogan's new memoir, "Wrestling the Hulk: My Life Against the Ropes," details her fear for her life while married to former husband and famed wrestler Hulk Hogan.
"He tore my shirt. He threw lamps. He held me down on the bed with his
hands around my throat during arguments, slamming doors, pounding
walls," she wrote in the autobiography, as reported by MSNBC. "I was always afraid he would
kill me in one of his rages."
When Matt Lauer asked Linda in an interview on the Today Show if
her then-husband would apologize once his anger subsided, she replied,
"He did not feel remorse, and to this day he's never apologized for any
of actions. That is something that scared me. I did not want to be a
statistic like Nicole Simpson."
And that, Linda explained, is why she remained quiet about Hulk's violence for so long.
"I was afraid to say anything," she revealed. "Had I said something, the carpet would have been pulled up from underneath his career. I don't know what my kids would have done. They were little at the time. It's scary. It's a very scary position. You don't know how far they're going to go. One fight can escalate and turn into something you don't want."
The reality star believes drugs are part of the cause of Hulk's rage."Drugs were always around - prescribed," Linda told Lauer. "(Wrestlers have) always got injuries, you know. There was a constant flow of pain pills, anti-inflammatories, steroids - a lot of them did take steroids. Combined? It makes somebody... you don't know what you're dealing with."
The Hulk has already dismissed the allegations, saying on a 'Bubba the Love Sponge Show' radio interview that he "never laid a hand on her."
"If you step back and take a really good look at this - if you take the Hulk Hogan name out of her situation, her life, her career, the air she breathes. She's out of gas. She's still riding on the Hulk Hogan name. Just take her and put her in the same category with the Iron Sheik and the Ultimate Warrior. They all belong together."
The Iron Sheik and the Ultimate Warrior are former wrestling opponents of Hulk and have been vocal critics of him during their retirements, ContactMusic reports.
Linda and Hulk divorced in 2008 after 25 years of marriage.