But all the lifeguards in Malibu couldn't stop David Hasselhoff 's marriage from going under.

"I'm tempted to stray every day There are so many people in this world you could hook up with, " actor David Hasselhoff was quoted as saying early last year on his shortcomings as a married man battling the temptations of adultery.

Although he'd preceded it with the seemingly innocuous, "You can be a diabetic and look at a cake, can't you? You just can't eat it", it may have been a premonition of what was to come.

While there's no evidence to suggest that 53-year-old Hasselhoff or his wife, actress Pamela Bach, were sampling other 'cakes', their marriage has dramatically crumbled, and Hollywood gossip mongers are eagerly waiting under the table for any tidbits that fall.

And falling they have been, hard and fast since 12 January when Hasselhoff filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences. At the time, publicists said the split was amicable . . . with temporary custody of one of each of their two daughters going to both parents. Nothing it seems could have been further from the truth.

The former Baywatch actor and producer had been married, relatively peacefully despite personal problems, to Bach (42) for 16 years. The pair, who met on the set of the 1980s TV series Knight Rider, had two daughters, Taylor (15) and Haley (13).

While acquaintances have speculated on the demise of the marriage, substance abuse on the part of both seems to have played a role in the last few years. But things took a dramatic turn when less than two months after the initial divorce proceedings, when Bach filed a petition in a Los Angeles court accusing the actor of domestic abuse and requesting a temporary restraining order against him.

Though it was denied, when the court papers were unsealed last week they revealed that Bach was accusing Hasselhoff of both physical and verbal abuse that accelerated with the announcement of their split in January. She claimed that twice in February this year Hasselhoff threatened and bullied her.

While heading to his apartment to drop off daughter Hayley in February, Bach says Hasselhoff called her mobile phone and made threats that caused her to turn the car around fearing her own safety. Bach claims the actor threatened to "Break through my security gate, drive his car through the house, beat the door down and takef my jewellery and sell it."

Even more dramatically, Bach is alleging that last December Hasselhoff turned violent against her and slammed her into a car. She says it's not the first time the actor has resorted to violence and that on previous occasions he had "grabbed me and pushed me hard into a car. In the past he has also broken my nose and called me 'whore', 'c**t', 'bitch', 'slut' and 'drug addict' in front of our children."

Also in February, police were called to the home Hasselhoff and Bach had shared and in which Bach remained with one of their daughters, after a similar incident was reported. Though requested, police did not grant Bach an emergency protective order.

At a court hearing on 6 March, Hasselhoff was barred from contacting or harassing Bach and instructed to stay at least 100 feet away from her unless exercising visitation rights with his children.

He was also ordered to give up any firearms in his possession, and not sell, transfer or hide any assets from his wife in preparation for divorce proceedings, and to refrain from making disparaging remarks about her in front of their daughters.

Both parents were ordered to undergo psychiatric child-custody evaluations by mental health specialists.

But Hasselhoff it seems wasn't the only abuser in the marriage. In court documents the former, Baywatch star alleges that for the last few years of their marriage, Bach had been addicted to prescription and illegal drugs. Her behaviour, he said, was "volatile and erratic."

Things were not always so fractious between the two. As late as 2000 Hasselhoff was quoted in a US women's magazine as saying: "I met my wife on the set of Knight Rider and it was destiny. Two years later, I met her again. We had both come out of relationships, and we happened to be free and available at a chance meeting at a restaurant in Los Angeles, 11 years ago. We are still taking our marriage and our life as lovers and parents very seriously and passionately, I'm happy to say."

Whatever the recent troubles in their relationship, Hasselhoff himself has had a slew of personal problems since Baywatch ended in 2001.

In June 2002 he checked into the Betty Ford clinic following rumours of alcohol abuse. He checked out again after just one day and headed to a nearby Palms Springs hotel with only the t-shirt and shorts he was wearing.

There, he has admitted, he proceeded to drink the entire contents of the minibar, the result of which almost killed him. Hotel employees found him unconscious on the floor of his room the next morning and called an ambulance to take him to a nearby hospital where he was treated for alcohol poisoning. "I woke up going, 'This is rock bottom, '" he told a US magazine in late 2002.

It was thought the actor had beaten his battle with booze after a second longer stint at the Betty Ford clinic, until an incident in 2004.

In June of that year he was arrested in a McDonalds car park in Los Angeles for drunk driving. After a night in jail he was reported to have spent part of that summer at the exclusive Cirque Lodge rehab centre in Utah. At his October 2004 court date, Hasselhoff was fined, ordered to 200 hours of community service, told to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings twice a week and had his driving licence restricted. He was also put on three years' self-supervised probation.

Observers speculate that the actor's woes are partially due to his failure to recreate anything close to his former achievements since Baywatch waded off screens in 2001 after 11 hugely successful seasons.

Aside from a stint on the London stage in Chicago, Hasselhoff 's roles since then have mostly been occupied with sending himself up, in parodies so popular with comedians during his often-scoffed-at musical and acting career.

Starting with his six years playing Dr Snapper Foster on US soap opera The Young and the Restless Hasselhoff was photographed in a now cult poster wearing only a leather jacket and skimpy black leather bikini briefs.

Though his professional moves have often had a certain cringeworthiness about them, they've been surprisingly successful in monetary terms.

When it debuted in 1989, Baywatch, with its scantily clad female cast, led by the romance novel cover of head lifeguard Mitch Buchanan, complete with rug chest, became a favourite target of comedians. It lasted only one season after savage reviews and so-so ratings.

Hasselhoff, seeing potential for the series, bought the rights to the programme and became an executive producer. It is said to have become the most successfully syndicated programme of all time, selling to over 140 countries in 44 languages and netting Hasselhoff his fortune.

But even at his height, Hasselhoff had a knack of attracting ridicule. The jokes largely centred on his unwavering Kennedy hair and images of slow-mo runs on Malibu beach followed by buxom blondes in barely-there swimsuits.

Then there was his singing career. Though joked about even more than anything else he's done, Hasselhoff managed to develop a lucrative second career in music, mainly thanks to a fan base in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In 1989, just as the Berlin wall was coming down, he released 'Looking for Freedom', and an anthem . . . in Germany at least . . . was born. As the biggest selling artist there that year, a newspaper alluded to his popularity with a headline: 'Hasselhoff: Not since the Beatles.'

In the US, comics quipped that the real reason people tore down the Berlin wall was to get away from his singing.

But Hasselhoff, at just 53 . . . of whom his soon-to-be ex-wife once said had the energy of five racehorses . . . seems to be having trouble making the transition to retirement and simply resting on his laurels and considerable fortune.

Generating new roles has eluded him.

Most of his recent work has been tied to rehashes of what he's already done. A twohour TV movie of Baywatch in 2003 reunited several of the former cast members. He also attempted a spin-off in the poorly received TV series Baywatch Nights. A full feature movie of the beach-babe drama is in the offing after Dreamwork's bought the rights for an estimated $1.25m last year, but Hasselhoff is not thought to be involved with the project.

He is, however, said to be working on a bigscreen remake of Knight Rider, the series about an interactive car that made him a global name in the early 1980s.

There were also rumours last year that he was planning to re-launch himself on the unsuspecting world of rap and hip hop, working with Ice-T under the name 'Hassel the Hoff '.

The comics are sharpening their pens.