Hulk Hogan opened up about his struggles with pain and medication in what would become one of his final interviews.
In the Netflix docuseries Hulk Hogan: Real American, the wrestling icon, who died in July 2025 at age 71, spoke candidly about the physical toll he endured during his time with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.
“I was taking 80-milligram fentanyls, two in the morning, stuffing them under my gums here,” Hogan said. “I had two 300 mg patches of fentanyl on my legs, and they gave me six 1,500 mg fentanyl lollipops to eat.”
He recalled a pharmacist reacting with alarm when reviewing his prescriptions.
“I went to the pharmacy, he goes, ‘You should be dead. We have never seen a human being take this much fentanyl,’” Hogan said.
The interview detailed a difficult period in his life that followed his divorce from Linda Hogan. According to the docuseries, the split left him in a vulnerable place as he tried to continue working despite ongoing health issues. Former wrestling executive Eric Bischoff also spoke about that time.
“Your wife’s divorcing you, your doctors are giving you fistfuls of pills that would kill a horse,” he said.
Hogan described how severe the pain had become, saying, “I had to sleep in a chair,” adding that even small movements caused intense discomfort. Hogan died after a cardiac event at his home in Clearwater, Florida. Medical records indicated he had previously been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
