Tragic Details About David Hasselhoff

The following article includes mention of addiction and suicide, and allegations of domestic abuse.

Few actors can boast of having a Hollywood career more eclectic than that of David Hasselhoff. First bursting to fame for his portrayal of a crime fighter with a talking car in "Knight Rider," the actor who's dubbed himself "the Hoff" will always be best known as lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in "Baywatch." While fans of the show might wonder what the original cast of "Baywatch" looks like today, at one point, it was the most-watched TV series in the world. He's also judged talent shows, dabbled in reality TV, performed on Broadway, and has been a pop star with a huge following in Germany.

"Everybody knows me," Hasselhoff expressed in an interview with SubMerge. "It's a pretty wild experience going through life. It can be a very positive and it can also be very intrusive and very gut-wrenchingly sad when it affects your daughters. It's a double-edged sword."

Like most actors, Hasselhoff's career has experienced its ups and downs, and that's also been true of his personal life, marked by many highs, but also a significant number of heartbreaking lows. To find out more about the sadder side of this well-known celebrity, read on to discover some tragic details about David Hasselhoff.

In 1984, David Hasselhoff was one of TV's biggest stars when he tied the knot with Catherine Hickland. Like Hasselhoff, Hickland is also an actor, whose credits range from soap operas ("Loving," "One Life to Live") to being one of many actors to spend time on "Law & Order." But when the couple initially began dating, they were both working on soaps, she on NBC's "Texas," while he was starring in the enduringly popular soap, "The Young and the Restless."

Then, Hasselhoff was cast in "Knight Rider" and everything changed. "There was no predicting, really, you know, how fast that show was going to take off," she said during a video interview. "Things changed a lot, and it was a challenge." The two's marriage, however, did not stand the test of time. After tying the knot in 1984, Hasselhoff and Hickland divorced in 1989. She subsequently wed Michael E. Knight — best known for playing Tad Martin on "All My Children" — who, oddly enough, shared the name of her ex-husband's "Knight Rider" character.

Speaking with People in 1994, Hickland elaborated on what went wrong. "The relationship was no longer just us," she said, explaining that all the trappings of Hasselhoff's newfound stardom ultimately led the marriage to collapse. "There were managers, press agents, secretaries."

While David Hasselhoff rode the crest of international success with "Baywatch," he was struggling personally. He coped by drinking, which escalated as time went by. In 2002, the situation had reached the point where he decided to check himself into the Betty Ford Center. "He realized his social drinking had increased more than he was comfortable with and he decided to do something about it," Hasselhoff's rep said in a statement.

However, media reports at the time indicated Hasselhoff's issues with alcohol were more severe than "social drinking." Tabloid reports at the time claimed that he previously exited rehab after just a single day, and, within hours, a security guard found him passed out in his hotel room, where all the liquor in the minibar had been consumed. He was reportedly taken to a hospital and treated for alcohol poisoning. When he was released, he returned to the Betty Ford Center.

Writing in his 2007 memoir, "Don't Hassle the Hoff" (as excerpted in the New York Post), Hasselhoff recalled bolting from rehab and walking to a Marriott hotel. "Once inside, I sat down at the desk, switched on the TV, and proceeded to have a few drinks from the minibar," he said. "I told myself I'd go back to Betty Ford in the morning, but first I needed another shot of tequila."

Two years after his stint in rehab, alcohol got him in trouble with the law. In June 2004, he was arrested on suspicion of DUI. He was charged and entered a plea of no contest. He managed to avoid jail time, but was sentenced to attend a six-month alcohol education course. In addition, he was issued a $390 fine, ordered to perform community service, and had restrictions placed upon his driver's license.

In his book, "Don't Hassle the Hoff," he admitted the whole thing came about because he was feeling hungry amid all that drinking and really wanted a hamburger. "It was past midnight, it was raining and I thought, 'I can make it to McDonald's,'" he wrote (via the New York Post). He also confessed that being charged with driving under the influence had been a sobering experience for him. Being placed under arrest, he wrote, made him feel "embarrassed, devastated and ashamed."

Shortly after his divorce from Catherine Hickland finalized, David Hasselhoff wed for the second time, marrying Pamela Bach in December 1989. The couple welcomed two children during their marriage — daughters Hayley and Taylor-Ann — but this union was also doomed to failure. In January 2006, Hasselhoff filed for divorce, kicking off a long, ugly, and very public parting of the ways after nearly 17 years of marriage.

The divorce proceedings took a dark turn when Bach accused Hasselhoff of spousal abuse, claiming he once broke her nose during a fight. Hasselhoff disputed that; in a sworn deposition, he said, "The only person who broke my wife's nose was her plastic surgeon," as reported by the Daily Mail. When the divorce was finalized, more than two years later, Hasselhoff agreed to pay Bach $21,000 per month in alimony and an additional $4,000 a month for child support. The exes agreed to joint custody of the kids.

Bach told the Daily Mail that it was Hasselhoff's alcoholism that brought about the end of the marriage. "The man I fell in love with disappeared in the bottom of a glass," she said. During that interview, she declined to share details about his alleged violence. "I can't tell you the truth about the nose-breaking incident," she added. "It would destroy David and I can't do that."

According to David Hasselhoff's ex-wife, Pamela Bach, she spent much of their marriage trying to keep his excessive drinking out of the tabloids. That claim seemed to bear out when, during the period of their divorce, his public inebriation began making headlines.

For example, in July 2006, he was kicked out of Wimbledon after allegedly turning aggressive when he tried to buy a drink and was refused. "He was absolutely steaming and being very abusive," a Wimbledon security guard told the Daily Mirror, as reported by Digital Spy. "He was ejected from the ground and told not to bother coming back." Hasselhoff's publicist, Judy Katz, issued a statement to ABC News, which read, "David Hasselhoff enjoyed a day's tennis with friends at Wimbledon yesterday. During the afternoon, there was some confusion over accreditation as his party attempted to reach court 13. The situation was quickly resolved with the help of stewards. Reports that claim they were ejected were incorrect."

Later that same month, the Sun (via CBS News) reported that he was thrown off a London-to-LA flight because he was too drunk, with witnesses claiming he had difficulty standing. However, publicist Katz blasted the report as "totally untrue," stating, "They gave him some strong antibiotics and he got sick at the airport. He couldn't get on the plane. It was his choice. He got on the later flight."

David Hasselhoff's sad descent into alcoholism became impossible to ignore when a shocking video leaked online in 2007. That video, reportedly recorded by his youngest daughter, Taylor-Ann, featured the shirtless star lying on the floor of his home, utterly inebriated while eating a hamburger. "Don't get alcohol," her daughter told him at the start of the video. "You see what it's doing to you?" She then reminded him that he'd be fired from his show if any alcohol was detected in his blood the following morning, "Who says?" he drunkenly responded, slurring his words.

After the release of the embarrassing recording, Hasselhoff appeared on NBC's "Today" and admitted seeing himself in that state was as shocking to him as it was for fans. "For me it was actually a good sign because it was a wakeup call and it brought everything to a head," he said. "Finally, I just said, 'Look, this has all got to stop.'"

In fact, it was Hasselhoff himself who encouraged his daughter to hit the record button if he fell off the wagon. "David was well aware the tape was made," "Insider" host Lara Spencer (the outlet that first obtained the recording) told ABC News. "He actually asked his daughters to make a tape. He said, 'If I have a relapse I want to see it on tape. I want to know how bad I get, so that I can get better.'"

The release of the so-called "hamburger tape" had serious repercussions for David Hasselhoff, costing him the right to see his daughters. Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas suspended visitation rights until he could determine the authenticity of the recording. Hasselhoff regained visitation rights two weeks later. He was subsequently awarded full legal custody of both children.

In the years that followed, Hasselhoff's struggles with alcohol continued to make news. In May 2009, Radar reported that the actor's oldest daughter, Hayley, found him inebriated and passed out; she called her mother, who came and drove him to a hospital. His alcohol level was reportedly four times the legal limit, and he was treated for alcohol poisoning. That, the outlet claimed, marked the fifth time Hasselhoff had been treated for alcohol poisoning. Hasselhoff's attorney, Mel Goldsman, was quick to dismiss Radar's report as "nonsense," telling ABC News, "He's a recovering alcoholic. But he's really been doing great."

In his memoir, "Don't Hassle the Hoff," Hasselhoff weighed in on the toll that his drinking exacted on his kids. "When you look into the eyes of your children and they say they got abused in school because of bad publicity about their father, it breaks your heart," he wrote, as excerpted by the New York Post.

Anyone who's ever shaved has probably experience getting nicked, but David Hasselhoff took things to a whole other level when a shaving mishap resulted in his hospitalization. In 2008, he was shaving in a locker room of the gym in a London hotel when he somehow managed to bump a chandelier with his head. This caused the chandelier to shatter, sending shards of broken glass raining down on him. One of these glass fragments wound up slashing through tendons in his hand, which forced him to undergo emergency surgery.

The surgery reportedly went well, and Hasselhoff spent the night in a London hospital. "He's fine," Hasselhoff's publicist, Judy Katz, said in a statement at the time. "He's out of the hospital and will resume filming tomorrow."

Hasselhoff later explained the details of the accident when he appeared on Ryan Seacrest's radio show. "I was in the steam room and I came out and I was shaving and they have these trendy, trendy little Tiffany lamps," he explained, as reported by the Irish Examiner. "I hit the lamp, broke the lamp and a big chunk of it came down and sliced my hand wide open." According to Hasselhoff, he considered himself lucky that his injuries weren't more severe. "I cut four tendons!" he said. "It's a miracle that I still have use of my hand."

Back in 2009, social media was in its infancy, but was quickly gaining ground as sites like MySpace percolated. David Hasselhoff saw an opportunity, and launched his own social media platform, which he cleverly dubbed HoffSpace. "I couldn't really get the internet together but because 'Knight Rider' and 'Baywatch' and this Hoff thing has taken off so much around the world, we put together our own HoffSpace," he told BBC News. According to Hasselhoff, he'd seen numerous people attempting to impersonate him on MySpace and Facebook, and he felt the time had come to take matters into his own hands. "A lot of people were coming in posing as me or my children and I had to stop it, so I opened my own that is going to be fun and I can regulate it," he added. As BBC News reported, the recently launched site had already claimed more than 6,000 members.

HoffSpace allowed members to watch exclusive videos, read blog posts written by Hasselhoff, network with other fans, and become members of such groups as David Hasselhoff's Hair Appreciation Society. In one of those blogs (via Tech Digest), he offered a somewhat narcissistic origin story of how the site came to be. "I decided to start a network where people from across the world might come together and get a conversation started over me," he wrote.

HoffSpace ultimately went the same route as its now-defunct namesake, MySpace. The site, DavidHasselhoff.com, has been inactive for quite some time.

Over the years, paying ex-wife Pamela Bach $21,000 a month became financially burdensome for David Hasselhoff, who wound up losing so much of his money. In 2016, he declared that he was flat broke, with less than $4,000 in his bank account. He requested that his alimony amount be significantly lowered — to zero. He told TMZ that even though he was earning $112,000 per month, he was spending $66,000 of that — and paying her all that alimony meant there was little left over. Bach, however, was singing a far different tune. She claimed he was worth more than $100 million.

Hasselhoff's request to pay no alimony was not successful, even though he blasted his ex in court documents (obtained by the AP) citing her alleged "failure to make any efforts to become self supporting, contribute to her own support, or even make any efforts to gain job skills." He did, however, convince a judge to lower his payment. When the dust settled, that monthly payment had been reduced to just $5,000.

While it may not have been among the most egregiously expensive divorces in Hollywood history, Hasselhoff reportedly paid his ex a lot, in excess of $2.3 million during the decade since they split. "I am 63 years of age, and am at an age when I should be preparing for retirement and not having to continue working in order to pay [Bach's] support," he said in court documents, as reported by Page Six.

In 2010, David Hasselhoff had big plans to enter the lucrative reality television milieu. He signed on with A&E for "The Hasselhoffs," which would document his life as the divorced dad of two teenaged daughters. The series also focused on his career struggles and his attempts to launch his kids as stars.

At the time, Hasselhoff spoke about the show in a video shared on his now-defunct HoffSpace, revealing there were some other titles considered before settling on "The Hasselhoffs." "It was called 'The Hoff Drops,' it was called 'The Hoffsprings,' it was called 'Worth the Hassel,' it was called 'Don't Hassle the Hoffs,'" he said, adding, "It's been a tough battle, because I wanted to make a show that's heartwarming, entertaining."

Ultimately, "The Hasselhoffs" proved to be an enormous flop. Ratings were so low that the network pulled the show off the air after just two episodes — both of which aired on the same night. The first episode garnered an anemic 718,000 viewers, while the second dropped to just over 500,000. Those cellar-dwelling ratings effectively shut the door on Hasselhoff's aspirations to become a reality TV star.

It's fair to say that David Hasselhoff's relationship with ex-wife Pamela Bach had been contentious over the years. However, it all turned to pure tragedy in March 2025 when Bach died at the age of 62. The cause of death was reportedly a gunshot wound to the head, which was later revealed to have been self-inflicted.

"Dateline" correspondent Andrea Canning — who once worked as Bach's nanny — told People that the actor had been experiencing financial pressures in recent years. She also revealed that Bach was having difficulty walking, a lingering repercussion from a 2003 motorcycle accident when she was riding with her then-husband. "The last time I saw her, she was walking with a cane," Canning told the outlet. "She wasn't the Pamela I knew."

Hasselhoff responded to his wife's death in a statement he issued to People. "Our family is deeply saddened by the recent passing of Pamela Hasselhoff," he said. "We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support during this difficult time but we kindly request privacy as we grieve and navigate through this challenging time."

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, is dealing with domestic abuse, or is struggling or in crisis, contact the relevant resources below:

• Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
• Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
• Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.