David Hasselhoff and his ex-wife, Pamela Bach, had been in a tumultuous relationship for years before divorcing in 2007.
The 62-year-old American actress was sadly found dead in her Los Angeles home on Wednesday (March 5) from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. The cops reportedly found her unconscious at her house during a welfare check following calls of concern.
David and Pamela had been married since 1989 and share two daughters. In a statement issued following his wife’s death, the Knight Rider star said his family is “deeply saddened” by his ex-wife’s tragic passing.
Pamela Bach and David Hasselhoff met in 1985
David and Pamela were in relationships with different people when they first met in 1985. The actors for the hit show Knight Rider eventually began dating.
David describes Pamela as a “beautiful blonde with green eyes” in his memoir and reveals that a crew member invited her to David’s trailer as a joke.
However, his future wife was committed to her then boyfriend and David was still with his first wife, Catherine Hickland.
They met again at a club opening in 1988. Pamela was single and David was recently divorced but dating a South African singer.
The Daily Mail reports that David’s multiple attempts to woo Pamela failed. She insisted on not dating him as he had another girlfriend. But the Knight Rider was adamant about dating Pamela. After thinking long and hard, she finally agreed to see him when they were in Bruges. “Then we went to Bruges, where we made passionate love for ten days,” David recalled.
Then, they returned as a couple from Los Angeles. He proposed to her within weeks of getting into a relationship and they were hitched in December 1989.
They had a difficult marriage
Pamela welcomed her first child, Taylor Ann, with David in 1999. She was on a flight home from Germany on April 30 of the same year when she went into premature labour.
Their second daughter, Hayley, was born in 2001 and she was also born six weeks premature .
While their marriage was smooth-sailing at first, it endured challenges as years went by. Pamela revealed to The Mail in 2008 that her husband was admitted to Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs in 2002 as his drinking problem was out of hand.
Before long, the actor was found in a half-naked state in his hotel, after finishing all the alcohol in a hotel minibar.
Recalling the disturbing scene that could have ruined her ex husband’s reputation, Pamela said: “Had news leaked out, it would have destroyed the image he created for himself and the image I created for my friends and family.”
She added: “We were both living a lie but the biggest tragedy was that David loved the bottle more than me.”
After facing their share of hiccups in the relationship, David filed for divorce in 2006. He cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their split.
Shedding light on their parched relationship, Pamela confessed: “Everybody thought (David) was the golden star in swimming trunks on the beach with Pamela Anderson, but the drink was taking over his life.”
She continued: “To me, he was the man who fell over on the bedroom floor.”
Divorce left David Hasselhoff ‘broke’
In court filings, Pamela claimed that David was abusive toward her in their marriage. She said David “grabbed me and pushed me hard into a car” the month before he filed for divorce.
Her statement further read: “In the past, he has also broken my nose,” she claimed he “called me a… ‘drug addict’ in front of our children.”
David, however, denied all the allegations. He and his ex-wife received custody of one daughter each. The Baywatch star paid $21,000 in spousal support to Pamela at first.
The actor admitted in court in 2016 that he was “too broke” to continue providing for his wife and daughters. The monthly payments were reduced to $10,000 upon an agreement with Pamela.
The Sun reports that the alimony was further reduced to just $5,000 a month by 2017, which he continued to pay till 2020.
David claimed that he had paid over $2.5 million to Pamela since their divorce.
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