Hulk Hogan says life 'upside down' after sex tape | News

Clearwater, Florida (USA TODAY) -- Wrestling icon Hulk Hogan says his new life and his new wife have been turned "totally upside down" over a sex tape obtained without his knowledge and leaked online.

Hogan was on the Today show this morning with Kathie Lee and Hoda Kotb to promote his latest venture but had to address the elephant in the room: the sex tape apparently shot years ago and sent anonymously to Gawker last week. He said it's thrown him to the mat.

Gallery: Hulk Hogan's sex tape still images- WARNING: graphic content

"It's appalling," Hogan said, as Kathie Lee and Hoda murmured sympathetically. "It's flipped my life totally upside down."

He added that his new wife, Jennifer, " is rattled, to say the least. She's not part of this media life. It's something devastating to me, I've never been through anything on this level."

Hogan made no excuses but said he didn't know there was a camera in the room during the encounter with a woman not his then-wife. He said he and Linda Hogan were splitting up at the time and he was at a low point. He's since rebuilt his life, he said.

"What's the motivation?" of taping and then leaking, he lamented, adding that he is concerned for his children, too. He's pursuing legal efforts to get the tape off the Internet.

Hogan appeared on Today to promote Impact Wrestling, a wrestling TV program for which he is general manager. He said he also has become a small businessman, having just opened a beach shop in Clearwater, Florida, near where he lives.