Inside Brooke Hogan's Life Out of the Spotlight With Husband and Twins

With a last name like Hogan, staying out of the limelight is no easy task — but Brooke Hogan has managed to do it, all while crafting the life she thought might never be possible. 

Brooke, 37, rose to reality TV fame in the early 2000s on her family’s VH1 reality series, Hogan Knows Best, which aired from 2005 to 2007. Her father, wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, was the catalyst for the show, which also featured Hulk’s then-wife and Brooke’s mother, Linda, and Brooke’s brother, Nick. 

She later had her own spinoff on VH1, Brooke Knows Best, which aired from 2008 to 2009. 

Along the way, Brooke has explored a music career — her 2006 song “About Us,” featuring Paul Wall, peaked at No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 — and followed in her father’s wrestling footsteps, appearing briefly in WWE and then in Total Nonstop Action (TNA) wrestling from 2012 to 2013. 

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In the years since, Brooke has mostly faded from public view. In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Brooke detailed what she’s been up to since — and why it was all by design. 

“As anybody’s life is, it takes crazy twists and turns,” Brooke told Us on Wednesday, June 25. “My 20s, I tell people, I blacked out from just the trauma and the filming and I didn’t get to enjoy my 20s. I feel like I just immediately had to grow up and be on TV and work, and those filming hours are so long.”

She added, “It was just like, what was what? I literally have an Excel spreadsheet on, like, dates of my life that my friends helped fill in to try to remember what happened when.”

Courtesy of Brooke Hogan/Instagram

In 2011, Brooke moved from Los Angeles to Nashville where she “has more friends than I have anywhere else.”

Brooke bought a house in Nashville and began working as a bartender at Bourbon Steak at the JW Marriott in Downtown Nashville. While she was bartending, she volunteered to help decorate an Airbnb that needed some quick refreshing. 

“My grandmother was an interior designer, and my mom was a ‘Let’s move the couch ourselves and rearrange the furniture at midnight’ kind of person,’” Brooke said. “I was like, ‘Listen, I can decorate the house in, like, three days.’ That’s easy. Let’s just go to At Home and let’s go to Home Goods and s***, and let’s just put it together.’”

Brooke got to work and delivered on her promise, which led to her career taking a sudden and unexpected turn. 

“The property manager walked in and he was like, ‘This house was empty three days ago. Who did this?’” Brooke recalled. “And my former boyfriend was like, ‘Brooke just put it together.’ And he’s like, ‘Brooke, can you do this for other properties this fast?’ I was like, ‘Sure.’”

With the help of her childhood best friend and Brooke Knows Best costar, Ashley Menendez, Brooke launched BB Designs by Brooke in 2018, which has become one of Nashville’s largest interior design firms. 

Courtesy of Brooke Hogan/Instagram

“[Ashley] saw what I was doing and was like, ‘Brooke,  you’re in a mess. What you have is cool, but it needs to be made more corporate, you need more structure,’” Brooke said of Ashley coming on board. “Ashley kind of came in and restructured my company and hired new people, structured the invoices and the quotes differently. She really rebuilt my company with me, and then we decided it was so fun to go and do this together.”

Brooke said her company has completed work on more than 100 houses and has “six to 10” projects in progress every month. 

On the personal side of things, Brooke married former NHL player Steven Olesky, who she calls “Saint Steven,” in a private ceremony in June 2022. 

Courtesy of Brooke Hogan/Instagram

“We just kind of picked a pretty little park and had a pastor there, and then just kind of did it,” Brooke said of the wedding. “It really wasn’t a big deal. It was just a little small me and Steve thing.”

She added, “When we got married on our own, me and Steve both said we wouldn’t have done it any other way, because it was really us and God, and it was just a beautiful day. It was perfect. There wasn’t any distraction, there was no drama. We wouldn’t have changed the way we did it.”

In January, Brooke and Steven welcomed twins: son Oliver and daughter Molly. 

“​​I look at my daughter and I think I can’t imagine telling her anything other than she’s just beautiful and wonderful and just encouraging her and letting her shine and go whatever path she wants to go in life and support her in that,” Brooke said of motherhood. “I look at my son and I hope he ends up like his daddy because he’s such a stand up man and kind and gentle and has a conscience and always does the right thing and always takes the high road.” 

Courtesy of Brooke Hogan/Instagram

In recent years, Brooke has also rediscovered her faith after admitting it “wavered” during her time in Los Angeles. 

“I think everybody has times where you question, ‘Are you there God? What is supposed to be happening?’” Brooke explained. “Looking back, you notice a pattern where every time you think you’re going through something and it’s not fair, or you feel so alone, there’s always this glimmer of something that happens that changes the course and leads you to something better.”

Brooke Hogan and Husband Steven Oleksy's Relationship Timeline

She added, “Now that I’m old enough, I can look back and see that pattern, and see that that was God working his magic through me, with me, and pushing me towards things, even though it was painful.”

Courtesy of Brooke Hogan/Instagram

Brooke and her family recently relocated from Tennessee to her home state of Florida. 

“I spent 12 years in Nashville, and I put my tail between my legs and I ran back to Florida because the tornadoes were just too terrifying,” Brooke admitted.

While she still gets back to Nashville “a lot” for business, Brooke said getting back to her roots has been in the cards for a long time.