WHEN David Hasselhoff walked down the Golden Globes red carpet earlier this week, he was greeted with a loud chant from the crowds: “Hoff! Hoff! Hoff!”

The ubiquitous nickname has stuck, and it turns out he has Australia to thank for it.

“I was asked by a reporter at The Daily Telegraph what it was like being a sex symbol at age 50, which is a few years ago,” joked the now 63-year-old actor.

“He told me there was an epidemic of emails back and forth from secretaries talking about ‘The Hoff’ and I said, ‘What’s the Hoff?’ He said, ‘The women were writing things like ‘Hofflicious’, ‘Some like it Hoff’, ‘Wax on, Wax Hoff’, ‘Desperate Hoffwives’,” he laughs.

“And then I went down there to perform at the ARIAs. I took off my tuxedo shirt and underneath I was wearing a T-shirt that said ‘Don’t Hassle The Hoff.’ The whole place went crazy.”

Hasselhoff was refreshingly unguarded and happy to chat about his private life when news.com.au spoke to him. Married twice already, he’s now in a serious relationship with Welsh beauty Hayley Roberts, 32, who he’s been dating since 2011. So is he contemplating a third walk down the aisle?

“It’s one of those situations that gives me anxiety,” he says, physically grimacing. “It’s either going to be that or it’s going to be a heartbreak time and I am not sure which way to go yet, I really don’t.”

“As much as I am in love and as much as I think Hayley is fantastic, I am not sure whether to do that yet. And to be fair to her, I am going to love her enough to deal with the heartbreak we both will experience if we split up, but we are not really sure yet.”

Most celebrities are particularly sensitive and controlling when it comes to image but Hasselhoff isn’t remotely precious about such things. “Oh my God, that’s so ridiculous to be annoyed by that kind of thing. You should be honoured that anyone wants to take your picture and you should be honoured that anyone bothers you at all. The time to worry is when nobody takes your picture,” he says.

“And I have seen it happen a million times. They just get so stuck-up and full of themselves,” he says, shaking his head.

Looking healthy, tanned and not too much like a 63-year-old, Hasselhoff is excited about the spring US premiere of his mockumentary TV series, Hoff the Record, in which he plays a fictionalised version of himself. The show is filmed in London where he currently spends most of his time.

It’s a winning formula because part of Hasselhoff’s appeal is his ability to be in on the joke.

“To be honest, if my show is a hit in America, that will make a big difference because then I could get a place in the UK and get a place here. It’s tough being on the road; it’s not for me. I have enough money to retire, I have enough money in the bank but I have also got a lot of people that are in my life that require my attention.”

He is speaking of his daughters and in particular, his ex-wife, Bach. California law dictates that the breadwinner during a marriage sets a precedent to pay alimony indefinitely if the marriage is deemed ‘long term,’ meaning longer than a decade (which is why many celebrities divorce before the 10-year mark — most famously, Tom Cruise).

“I’ll be paying alimony forever,” he acknowledges. “Robin Williams had a funny joke saying, ‘It’s not alimony, it’s all the money.’ And I said, ‘Boy, is that right!’ What people don’t understand is you get a third on the dollar.”

With a bunch of diverse projects afoot — from 80s-themed record, True Survivor to a talk show in Sweden and a possible Las Vegas residency — Hasselhoff is probably genuine about money not being a problem. And then of course there’s the upcoming Baywatch movie, starring Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron and Sports Illustrated model Kelly Rohrbach (an ex-girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio) with many more Hollywood names vying to be cast.

Is Hasselhoff one of them? He smiles. “If the part was good and the show wasn’t stupid, of course I’d be in it!”