Hulk Hogan Admits Taking Deadly Doses of Fentanyl to Cope With Pain After Nasty Divorce From Ex Linda in Final Interview Before Fatal Heart Attack
Hulk Hogan confessed to taking an inordinate amount of fentanyl before his death.
April 22 2026, Published 11:58 a.m. ET
Hulk Hogan was taking so much fentanyl in his final months, even his pharmacist was shocked he was still alive, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The wrestling legend was in extreme pain near the end of his life, and was trying to pick up the pieces following his nasty divorce before he suffered a fatal heart attack.
Deadly Drug Combination
The wrestling legend's final interview is the basis of a new documentary.
Hogan died last July at the age of 71 in his Clearwater, Florida home. The WWE icon had spent his final years trying to rebuild his empire after claiming to have been wiped out financially in his messy 2009 separation from his wife, Linda.
The star, who was born Terry Bollea before finding success with his Hulkamaniacs, opened up about the highs and the lows of his life for the new Netflix docuseries, "Hulk Hogan: Real American."
It would end up being his final public interview.
Hogan said after the divorce, he signed up with WWE rival TNA Wrestling, desperate for cash. But the pains of a lifetime in the ring had taken their toll, and he turned to the drug to help him recover.
"I was taking 80-milligram fentanyls, two in the morning, stuffing them under my gums here," Hogan confessed. "I had two 300mg patches of fentanyl on my legs and they gave me six 1500mg fentanyl lollipops to eat."
He added, "I went to the pharmacy, he goes, 'You should be dead. We have never seen a human being take this much fentanyl.'"
Pain Pill Addiction
His years in the ring led to dozens of surgeries outside the squared circle.
During a September 2024 interview on Logan Paul's Impaulsive podcast, Hogan admitted he'd had dozens of medical issues in the previous 10 years, after decades of having his body battered by high-flying antics in the ring.
"I was hitting the pain pills hard because I’d had to endure 25 procedures, including ten to my back, facial operations from being kicked, knee and hip replacements, and abdominal and shoulder surgeries," Hogan previously said.
He continued: "There was a period of time, about five or six years ago, when I was in crazy pain to the extent I couldn’t even function. I needed pain meds at that stage, that’s for sure. But once things started to wind down, they continued giving me the same meds."
Hogan's Cause of Death
Hogan suffered a fatal heart attack inside his Clearwater home.
Meanwhile, there are still lingering questions about how Hogan really died. A Florida doctor concluded Hulk died from "acute myocardial infarction," commonly known as a heart attack.
Documents further revealed the WWE star also had a history of atrial fibrillation, a common disorder that causes irregular heartbeats, and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, which impacts white blood cells called lymphocytes.
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Conspiracy Theories Arise
He had been recovering from a recent neck surgery.
Just two months before his death, Hogan reportedly had another neck surgery to help him "feel a little better," amid concerns his health was faltering.
A representative for Hogan at the time confirmed the surgery, which he described as a "little fusion procedure." The surgery was successful and had a "quick turnaround" as Hogan had reportedly already returned to work.
But Hogan's grieving widow, Sky Daily, speculated the surgery might have compromised the athlete's phrenic nerve – the nerve that controls breathing – raising questions about possible medical malpractice.
An occupational therapist present at the time reportedly observed the nerve had been severed, which could explain a sudden respiratory failure – yet the official cause remains a heart attack.
"If you have shortness of breath for a long time, that makes you very sick," Daily explained. "It's not something that's an alarming (sudden) cause of death. It's something that wears on you, makes you weak."
