PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel admits to bankrolling Hulk Hogan's Gawker lawsuit

Billionaire venture capitalist, outed as gay by online news site in 2007, provided $10m to support wrestler's case over sex tape

Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, has admitted that he is the secret funder of Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against online news site Gawker.

Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, sued for invasion of privacy after Gawker published an excerpt of a leaked sex tape in 2012. In March this year, a Florida jury awarded Bollea $140m (95.1m) in damages against the media organisation.