Drunk Tape Bad for Hasselhoff, but Is It Worse for His Daughter?

May 4, 2007 — -- It's a disturbing image: an intoxicated David Hasselhoff barely able to sit up as his 16-year-old daughter Taylor confronts him about his excessive drinking.

"You need to promise me you're not going to get alcohol tonight, OK? 'Cause if you get alcohol tonight you are fired from your show tomorrow," she says on an exclusive video obtained by "Entertainment Tonight" and the "Insider."

The tape shows one man's personal struggle with alcoholism, but it also contains some larger lessons for all of us on how to deal with the disease.

Child Becomes the Parent

Hasselhoff apparently asked his daughters to tape him if he were to relapse.

"David was well aware the tape was made," said "Insider" host Lara Spencer. "He actually asked his daughters to make a tape. He said, 'If I have a relapse I want to see it on tape. I want to know how bad I get, so that I can get better.'"

Dr. Harris Stratyner, director of addiction recovery at Mount Sinai Hospital, said today on "Good Morning America" that Hasselhoff was irresponsible to put his daughter in that situation.

"What he's doing is saying I'm going to do it and tape me," Stratyner said. "To ask a 16-year-old child to tape her father when he's intoxicated with what is a braindisease is unconscionable in my opinion."

In the tape, Taylor warns her father, who is starring in "The Producers" in Las Vegas, that his career is in jeopardy.

"The doctor is coming over here in the morning to check your alcohol level," she says. "If you have any alcohol in your system you're going to be fired from the show tomorrow. Do you hear me? No alcohol."

Hasselhoff "turned his child into the parent," said Straytner, which he called narcissism on the actor's part.

Pamela Bach, Hasselhoff's soon-to-be ex-wife, told ABC News she didn't want her daughter caught up in "helping" Hasselhoff battle his addiction.

"I don't want my daughter taping him and involving herself just so he can see himself intoxicated," Bach said. "She is not the parent, and I don't want her playing the parental role, it's very upsetting. This is an obvious cry for help."

Straytner also stressed that family members of alcoholics need treatment, too.

"It's about helping your children get treatment because it's often times considered a family illness because people are co-dependent they get involved in this illness," he said.

Shaming Not Helpful

In a statement, Hasselhoff said, "Unfortunately, one evening I did have a brief relapse, but part of recovery is relapse."

Straytner said that is often true, but relapse isn't guaranteed. The key, he said, is for an alcoholic -- and his loved ones -- to recognize his triggers that lead him to drink.

"It's about educating those who love you to look for those triggers and to encourage you to seek treatment as opposed to shaming you," Straytner said.

Debra Opri, the divorce attorney for Bach, said the family is devastated and concerned for his welfare.

"Nothing is working," Opri said. "Obviously more drastic measures need to be taken."

Straytner agrees that Hasselhoff seems very much still in the grip of addiction.

"We need to understand it's a disease. If not treated, it's fatal," he said.

"We wouldn't do these stunts with people who have diabetes and we shouldn't pull these stunts with people who have alcoholism."