It's been a rough stretch for Hulk Hogan since an old recording of the pro-wrestling icon using the N-word surfaced late last month and he was subsequently wiped from WWE's Hall of Fame.
In an interview with ABC News' Amy Robach that aired Monday (August 31) on Good Morning America, an emotional Hogan said he should have never used the word, but denied being a racist and asked his fans to forgive him.
Hogan told Robach that at the time, he was "upset over a situation that happened" between his daughter, Brooke Bollea, and her then-boyfriend, when he used the word, but added that he didn't know he was being recorded. What resulted was instant sadness.
"I was to the point where I wanted to kill myself, you know?" Hogan said. "I was completely broken and destroyed and said, 'What's the easiest way out of this?' I mean, I was lost."
When Robach asked whether he was suicidal, Hogan responded, "yes I was."
Hogan adamantly denies being a racist, though.
"I'm not a racist but I never should have said what I said. It was wrong. I'm embarrassed by it," he said. "People need to realize that you inherit things from your environment. And where I grew up was south Tampa, Port Tampa, and it was a really rough neighborhood, very low income. And all my friends, we greeted each other saying that word."
He added that he inherited a racial bias.
"The environment I grew up in in south Tampa and all my white friends, all my black friends, to hear the word on a daily basis when they'd greet me in the morning, that's what they'd say to me, 'Good morning,' so-and-so,'" he said. "I think that was part of the culture and the environment I grew up in and I think that's fair to say."
As he continued, Hogan expressed the hurt over WWE wiping his legendary history.
"I've worked for the WWE for almost 30 years off and on and then all of a sudden, everything I've done my whole career and my whole life was like it never happened," he said. "I mean, I love this business. I mean, it's been my life. I've given my life to this business. I've destroyed my body because I love doing this so much. And I knew great things were still coming. And — it just destroyed me."
In closing, he asked for forgiveness and wanted fans to understand that people do change for the better.
"Oh, my gosh. Please forgive me. Please forgive me," he said. "I think if you look at the whole picture of who Hulk Hogan is, you can see over all the years that there's not a racist bone in my body."
He added: "If everybody at their lowest point was judged on one thing they said and let's just say in high school, you may have said one bad thing and all of a sudden, your whole career was wiped out today because of something you said 10 or 20 years ago, it'd be a sad world. People get better every day. People get better."
The 62-year-old Hogan is suing Gawker Media for $100 million for posting a secretly-recorded sex tape involving the former pro-wrestler on its website. The tape, which is believed to have been recorded between 2006 and 2007, also includes Hogan's racial slur, which was originally reported by the National Enquirer.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
