David Hasselhoff suffers airport health crisis weeks after ex wife killed herself… as insiders reveal why ‘he’s living on borrowed time’
David Hasselhoff looked frighteningly frail while being pushed in a wheelchair through the airport on Monday, weeks after the tragic suicide of his ex-wife Pamela Bach.
In pictures exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail, the actor, 72, was spotted being wheeled along by airport attendants in both Cancun, Mexico, and upon his return to Los Angeles.
After easing himself out of the wheelchair at LAX, Hasselhoff, sporting a striped button-down and dark baseball hat, leaned heavily on his wife Hayley Roberts, 45, as he exited the airport.
Despite his attempts to put on a happy face – flashing a smile, thumbs up and waving to the cameras – insiders say the actor’s old hard-partying lifestyle is catching up with him.
‘David is living on borrowed time and has lived hard,’ a source close to Hasselhoff told the Daily Mail.
‘He had a life that people could only dream of but he also spent decades self-medicating through alcohol and other substances, which he does regret.’
Hasselhoff was spotted at LAX in a wheelchair on Monday.
The ‘Baywatch’ actor was being wheeled by an airport attendant after touching down in California.
He was also spotted in a wheelchair at the airport in Cancun, Mexico, where he and his wife were vacationing.
Hasselhoff eased himself out of the chair before exiting LAX with Roberts.
As the pair walked, Hasselhoff appeared to lean on Roberts for support.
Hasselhoff was wearing a striped collared shirt, which was unbuttoned to reveal a black tee underneath. He also sported a dark cap and a pair of reading glasses dangling from his neck.
The source added that Hasselhoff’s health ‘has been declining for some time now,’ a result of ‘decades of alcoholism.’
While limping through LAX, the Baywatch star tried to dismiss concerns of onlookers, telling the photographers he is due to have knee surgery ‘next week’.
‘He is in his 70s and has had several major operations including having a defibrillator fitted to prevent a heart attack,’ our source said. ‘He is sober now but knows that every surgery could be the last.’
Hasselhoff’s struggle with alcohol addiction reportedly torpedoed his marriage with Bach, his second wife, who took her own life aged 61 in her Hollywood Hills home on March 5.
Paramedics were called to the actress’s residence and discovered she had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Hasselhoff, who was spotted looking gaunt days after Bach’s death, said through a spokesperson that his family was ‘deeply saddened’ by her passing.
He was noticeably absent from Bach’s funeral.
The pair met on the set of Hasselhoff’s sci-fi series Knight Rider in 1986. At the time, he was married to his first wife and co-star Catherine Hickland, while Bach was seeing a comedian.
In 1989, Hasselhoff and Hickland divorced. He met Bach again that year on the set of Baywatch, where she had landed a small role. After nine months of dating, she was pregnant – and they expedited their wedding.
Hasselhoff and his second wife Pamela Bach pictured in 1993.
The actor appeared to be in good spirits, regularly flashing a smile and thumbs up.
Insiders told the Daily Mail that the aging actor is ‘living on borrowed time.’
Hasselhoff, who appeared in Instagram snaps on Roberts’ social media while on their getaway, needed a helping hand during his travels.
Hasselhoff revealed he will be undergoing knee surgery next week.
‘David is living on borrowed time and has lived hard,’ a source close to Hasselhoff told the Daily Mail. ‘He had a life that people could only dream of but he also spent decades self-medicating through alcohol and other substances, which he does regret.’
Roberts and Hasselhoff met in 2011 in Cardiff.
The lovebirds tied the knot in a 2018 ceremony in Italy.
The source said that Hasselhoff’s health ‘has been declining for some time now,’ a result of ‘decades of alcoholism.’
The couple were married for 17 years, from 1989 to 2006, before a nasty Hollywood divorce. Their split was reportedly the result of Hasselhoff’s drinking. Bach also found herself unable to care for her husband after a motorcycle injury in 2003 had left her with lifelong pain.
In a 2008 interview with the Daily Mail, Bach admitted that ‘The Hoff’ had ‘a drinking problem,’ but that she had protected him and their children – Hayley, now 32, and Taylor, 34.
‘Everybody thought he was the golden star in swimming trunks on the beach with Pamela Anderson but the drink was taking over his life. To me, he was the man who fell over on the bedroom floor,’ she said.
‘He has a disease, just like cancer. And just like cancer, it ate away at our family from the inside.’
Hasselhoff’s ‘wake-up call’ came in 2007, when a video filmed by his daughter, Taylor, went public, showing him in a drunken stupor struggling to eat a burger. In 2015, he revealed he was attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
The actor met his third and current wife, Roberts, in 2011.
The Welsh beauty, nearly three decades his junior, was in Cardiff, where Britain’s Got Talent was being filmed. At the time, ‘The Hoff’ was a judge on the show, and Roberts, accompanied by her younger sister, dared to ask for a picture.
Hasselhoff, in turn, requested her phone number – and the rest is history.
He popped the question in 2016 and the pair wed in a lavish ceremony in Italy two years later.
Hasselhoff’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
