With a final identify like Hogan, staying out of the limelight is not any straightforward process — however Brooke Hogan has managed to do it, all whereas crafting the life she thought may by no means be potential.
Brooke, 37, rose to actuality TV fame within the early 2000s on her household’s VH1 actuality sequence, Hogan Is aware of Finest, which aired from 2005 to 2007. Her father, wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, was the catalyst for the present, which additionally featured Hulk’s then-wife and Brooke’s mom, Linda, and Brooke’s brother, Nick.
She later had her personal spinoff on VH1, Brooke Is aware of Finest, which aired from 2008 to 2009.
Alongside the best way, Brooke has explored a music profession — her 2006 track “About Us,” that includes Paul Wall, peaked at No. 33 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 — and adopted in her father’s wrestling footsteps, showing briefly in WWE after which in Whole Nonstop Motion (TNA) wrestling from 2012 to 2013.
Within the years since, Brooke has largely pale from public view. In an unique interview with Us Weekly, Brooke detailed what she’s been as much as since — and why it was all by design.
“As anyone’s life is, it takes loopy twists and turns,” Brooke informed Us on Wednesday, June 25. “My 20s, I inform individuals, I blacked out from simply the trauma and the filming and I didn’t get to get pleasure from my 20s. I really feel like I simply instantly needed to develop up and be on TV and work, and people filming hours are so lengthy.”
She added, “It was similar to, what was what? I actually have an Excel spreadsheet on, like, dates of my life that my associates helped fill in to attempt to bear in mind what occurred when.”
In 2011, Brooke moved from Los Angeles to Nashville the place she “has extra associates than I’ve anyplace else.”
Brooke purchased a home in Nashville and commenced working as a bartender at Bourbon Steak on the JW Marriott in Downtown Nashville. Whereas she was bartending, she volunteered to assist adorn an Airbnb that wanted some fast refreshing.
“My grandmother was an inside designer, and my mother was a ‘Let’s transfer the sofa ourselves and rearrange the furnishings at midnight’ type of individual,’” Brooke stated. “I used to be like, ‘Pay attention, I can adorn the home in, like, three days.’ That’s straightforward. Let’s simply go to At Residence and let’s go to Residence Items and s***, and let’s simply put it collectively.’”
Brooke started working and delivered on her promise, which led to her profession taking a sudden and surprising flip.
“The property supervisor walked in and he was like, ‘This home was empty three days in the past. Who did this?’” Brooke recalled. “And my former boyfriend was like, ‘Brooke simply put it collectively.’ And he’s like, ‘Brooke, are you able to do that for different properties this quick?’ I used to be like, ‘Positive.’”
With the assistance of her childhood greatest pal and Brooke Is aware of Finest costar, Ashley Menendez, Brooke launched BB Designs by Brooke in 2018, which has grow to be one in every of Nashville’s largest inside design companies.
“[Ashley] noticed what I used to be doing and was like, ‘Brooke, you’re in a multitude. What you’ve gotten is cool, nevertheless it must be made extra company, you want extra construction,’” Brooke stated of Ashley approaching board. “Ashley type of got here in and restructured my firm and employed new individuals, structured the invoices and the quotes in another way. She actually rebuilt my firm with me, after which we determined it was so enjoyable to go and do that collectively.”
Brooke stated her firm has accomplished work on greater than 100 homes and has “six to 10” tasks in progress each month.
On the private aspect of issues, Brooke married former NHL participant Steven Olesky, who she calls “Saint Steven,” in a non-public ceremony in June 2022.
“We simply type of picked a reasonably little park and had a pastor there, after which simply type of did it,” Brooke stated of the marriage. “It actually wasn’t an enormous deal. It was just a bit small me and Steve factor.”
She added, “After we received married on our personal, me and Steve each stated we wouldn’t have completed it some other method, as a result of it was actually us and God, and it was only a lovely day. It was good. There wasn’t any distraction, there was no drama. We wouldn’t have modified the best way we did it.”
In January, Brooke and Steven welcomed twins: son Oliver and daughter Molly.
“I have a look at my daughter and I believe I can’t think about telling her something apart from she’s simply lovely and fantastic and simply encouraging her and letting her shine and go no matter path she needs to go in life and assist her in that,” Brooke stated of motherhood. “I have a look at my son and I hope he finally ends up like his daddy as a result of he’s such a rise up man and type and delicate and has a conscience and all the time does the suitable factor and all the time takes the excessive street.”
In recent times, Brooke has additionally rediscovered her religion after admitting it “wavered” throughout her time in Los Angeles.
“I believe everyone has occasions the place you query, ‘Are you there God? What is meant to be occurring?’” Brooke defined. “Wanting again, you discover a sample the place each time you assume you’re going by way of one thing and it’s not truthful, otherwise you really feel so alone, there’s all the time this glimmer of one thing that occurs that modifications the course and leads you to one thing higher.”
Whereas Brooke Hogan and husband Steven Oleksy largely hold their relationship out of the general public eye, they’ve provided uncommon perception into their marriage. The couple tied the knot in 2022 after quietly relationship, however Hogan didn’t verify marriage — or Oleksy’s identification — till the next 12 months. “I’m so glad you’re on […]
She added, “Now that I’m sufficiently old, I can look again and see that sample, and see that that was God working his magic by way of me, with me, and pushing me in the direction of issues, despite the fact that it was painful.”
Brooke and her household not too long ago relocated from Tennessee to her dwelling state of Florida.
“I spent 12 years in Nashville, and I put my tail between my legs and I ran again to Florida as a result of the tornadoes had been simply too terrifying,” Brooke admitted.
Whereas she nonetheless will get again to Nashville “quite a bit” for enterprise, Brooke stated getting again to her roots has been within the playing cards for a very long time.