Wrestler-turned-reality Tv regular Hulk Hogan battled suicidal thoughts after his marriage crumbled, his son was imprisoned and his family Tv show was axed, all within months in 2008.

The former fighter admits splitting from Linda, his wife of 24 years, in late 2007 was just the start of a terrible year, revealing he felt helpless when their son Nick was charged, and later imprisoned for eight months, following a horrific car crash which left his friend and passenger John Graziano fighting for his life.

The final blow came as the family's reality show, Hogan Knows Best, was axed, and the series of unfortunate incidents left the now-60 year old reeling.

He says, "Everything kind of went downhill really fast. There was an accident that my son was involved in and a good friend of ours was in the accident with my son. Just the marriage basically crashing and burning...

"After the show, I kind of hit rock bottom. Everything got dark, everything happened at once. I was drinking alcohol very heavily. It just all kept piling up. It just kept mounting and mounting, and I didn't know how to handle it. I always wondered how could someone possibly take their own life? I got to that point where I thought, 'You know what, maybe this would be easy. Maybe this would be an easy way to fix things.'"

Luckily, Hogan managed to pull himself together after a warm greeting from a group of fans during a miserable New Year's Eve in Miami, Florida made him realise he had plenty to live for.

Speaking to Tv titan Oprah Winfrey, he explains, "It hit me that there is clean air and there is dirty air. Once I walked back inside again (the New Year's Eve party), I realised that I couldn't take it anymore. I got sick and tired of being sick and tired."