How David Hasselhoff Lost So Much Of His Money
No matter the generation you belong to, most people will know "Baywatch" as one of the most successful TV shows of the '90s with 11 seasons. It was also known for making some now world-renowned celebrities famous such as Carmen Electra and Pamela Anderson. Among them was also David Hasselhoff, who played Mitch Buchannon, and became loved by thousands of fans around the world.
Later on, Hasselhoff went on to play other well-known characters such as Michael Knight on "Knight Rider" and Nick Fury in "Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." His success led people to believe that Hasselhoff was living a life of luxury with the privileges that came with being famous and having made millions on successful projects. At the beginning of 2023, Celebrity Net Worth put Hasselhoff's net worth at $10 million. However, the actor seems to have spent most of his money.
"I'm a spender for sure. I don't save anything; I just go for it," he told The Telegraph. "My priority is taking care of my family, especially my two girls, Taylor, 21, and Hayley, 19. I work incredibly hard and part of the reason why is so I can spend money on the people I love."
David Hasselhoff's income versus his spending
David Hasselhoff has never shied away from admitting that he has been a big spender for the majority of his life. During his interview with The Telegraph, he explained most of his spending was done on his credit card to try and keep track of things. "I'd advise anyone to be completely hands-on with your money," he said. "It's something I didn't do through the years and I'm still not completely on top of things, so I'm losing money where I shouldn't be."
In February 2023, Radar Online reported that Hasselhoff was making more money than his female counterpart, Pamela Anderson, when it came to "Baywatch" residuals. According to their sources, he earned around $100 million in the 11 years he was on the show, making approximately $60,000 per episode. And if that wasn't enough, Hasselhoff was paid $4 million a year from their reruns.
However, after his 2006 divorce from wife, Pamela Bach, Hasselhoff claimed he didn't have enough money to pay for alimony. According to TMZ in 2016, he was making $112,000 per month and had $1.79 million in properties, savings, cars, art, and jewelry. His ex-wife, on the other hand, claimed that Hasselhoff was lying about the amount of money he was worth, saying it was closer to $120 million with expenses of $66,000 a month.
His divorce left him broke
David Hasselhoff and Pamela Bach were married between 1989 and 2006. According to Bach, the divorce had to do with Hasselhoff's alcoholism which led to a sad ending to their story. "To me, [Hasselhoff] was the man who fell over on the bedroom floor," she told the Daily Mail (via TODAY) in 2008. "I always believed in happy Hollywood endings but our story doesn't have one. We were both living a lie, but the biggest tragedy was that David loved the bottle more than me."
After the divorce, things went south, and Hasselhoff started struggling with the high alimony payments to his ex-wife. "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 (via Page Six) in 2016. Shortly after the divorce, Hasselhoff had to start paying $252,000 a year to Bach in payments of $21,000 per month. On top of that, he was also taking care of both their daughters's expenses, Hayley and Taylor Hasselhoff.
The Hoff tried to stop paying alimony
10 years after the divorce, in 2016, David Hasselhoff took Pamela Bach back to court, claiming he couldn't keep up with the alimony payments. Around that time, rumors began circulating that Hasselhoff only had $4,000 in liquid assets. It was then that he spoke with ET about his finances and said, "I was laughing about all these people who made money and lost it, and I was saying, 'How could that happen to them?' All of a sudden, I woke up one morning and said, 'Oh, I realize now!'"
In the documents filed by Hasselhoff to fight the high payments, he claimed Bach hadn't been supporting herself in the last ten years nor trying to gain any work skills or use her talents to support herself. Luckily for Hasselhoff, the judge agreed the payments were too high in comparison to his earnings and, according to the Daily Mail, the alimony monthly payments went from $21,000 to $10,000.
Hasselhoff, however, continues to be responsible for the former couple's daughters. And his goal was to get this settled before tying the knot with model Hayley Roberts, who he married in 2018.
His endorsed startup declared bankruptcy
Many celebrities have endorsed different businesses that aligned with their views or their beliefs or went hand-in-hand with the kind of work they had done in the past. For David Hasselhoff, one of those endorsements was tied to Homejoy Inc. This was an app based out of San Francisco that helped connect customers with house cleaners and handymen in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. Besides giving his endorsement, Hasselhoff participated in an advertisement for the company in which he visited a user's home in 2015.
However, in 2015, Homejoy Inc. declared bankruptcy after its competitor, Handy Technologies Inc., was able to raise $50 million in funding ($15 million more than Homeyjoy Inc. had originally been able to raise). Adora Cheung, who founded the company with her brother Aaron, wrote a blog post to let their customers know they were going out of business. "We're proud to be the pioneers of this space — but, above all, we're grateful for the community of partners, employees and clients that supported us. It has been a joy to see our product grow from dream to reality," she wrote on the Homejoy blog. "We gave it our all, but regretfully, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations."
He had credit card debt
In 2016, while David Hasselhoff was fighting his ex-wife in court to reduce the alimony payments, the Daily Mail got access to the court documents in which Hasselhoff stated that his liquid assets had gone from $1.2 million to $600 because of the spousal support money. It was also revealed that he had acquired a credit card debt of $95,281.92. However, this shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise since he told The Telegraph that most of his expenses were done on his credit cards.
According to ABC News, Hasselhoff's spending was estimated to be up to $72,000 per month. In the court documents, it was revealed that his set expenses included the expenses on his household, the maintenance of his daughters' lifestyles, vacations, his personal grooming, the care of his pets, and legal costs. What may have surprised some is that Hasselhoff had also been summoned by the U.K. for owing $100,000 in unpaid taxes between 2014 and 2015.
He threw a huge party for his 70th birthday
In July 2022, David Hasselhoff celebrated turning 70 by throwing a huge party that included a three-tiered cake, hundreds of guests, and all sorts of entertainment including clowns and mimes, which he shared on his Instagram account. The lavish celebration at a Calabasas, California restaurant came as a surprise after Hasselhoff had fought to lower his ex-wife's alimony and had said he had suffered a loss of millions of dollars since his divorce in 2006.
Despite the loss in his fortune, the celebration was massive and CNN labeled it as a "Baywatch" reunion since many of his former co-stars from the show attended. Among them was David Chokachi, Kelly Packard, and Jeremy Jackson. They all took to social media to congratulate Hasselhoff on his birthday and post photos of the party. Packard wrote on Instagram: "Happy birthday to the man, the myth, the legend! One of my hero's turned 70 today! You will never meet a more generous, kind, talented man! I am so happy we could celebrate with you!"
He ended up selling memorabilia
In 2021, the "Baywatch" and "Knight Rider" star ended up auctioning different items from his celebrated career. "The auction is now open, everything goes! ... Good luck, I'll see you there," he said in a video promoting the auction (via Marca). Most of the memorabilia belonged to his two most famous shows, including KITT, the talking car from "Knight Rider." According to Smooth Radio, Hasselhoff said if the car was auctioned for over 25% of the asking price, he would deliver the car himself.
However, this wasn't the first time Hasselhoff sold memorabilia from his career. In 2014, according to The Hollywood Reporter, he partnered with Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills to auction some of his most known items. He was auctioning a replica of the car used on "Knight Rider" that was given to him by fans. For those who followed his career and saw him in "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," he was also auctioning a model of himself in the famous "Baywatch" swimsuit that was used as part of the film. The items also included personal clothes such as a denim coat, a tie-dye shirt, and denim jacket decorated with Disney characters.