Hulk Hogan has been awarded $115 million in a sex tape lawsuit against the tabloid news site Gawker Media.
A Florida jury sided with the former wrestling superstar on Friday after two weeks of testimony and six hours of deliberation. The jury found that Gawker’s editors had violated Hogan’s privacy by posting the secretly recorded sex tape and caused him emotional distress
Hogan cried and hugged his attorney David Houston as the verdict was announced. He won $60 million for emotional distress and $55 million for economic damages — $15 million more than he had originally sought, Variety reports.
Nick Denton, Gawker’s founder, and Albert J Daulerio, the site’s former editor and chief, were both found personally liable.
After the jury’s decision, Denton said the website’s attorneys knew the appeals process would play a major role in the case.
“Given key evidence and the most important witness were both improperly withheld from this jury, we all knew the appeals court will need to resolve the case. I want to thank our lawyers for their outstanding work and am confident that we would have prevailed at trial if we had been allowed to present the full case to the jury,” Denton said in a statement.
“That’s why we feel very positive about the appeal that we have already begun preparing as we expect to win this case ultimately.”
