The Hoff weds Welsh sweetheart Hayley

previously told Hello! magazine that they were both in tears.

“I thought he was just joking around at first. He’s asked me before, but it was never for real,” she said.

“Then he pulled out the ring. I cried so hard that he didn’t get around to actually asking, ‘Will you marry me?’ until about 10 minutes later.”

He admitted he waited to pop the question because of the age gap.

He said: “I had a saying, ‘You don’t get married because you want to live with someone, you get married because you can’t live without them.’

“I felt that way. I waited to propose as I thought I was too old for her.”

But Hayley said the 27-year age gap didn’t worry her.

“I don’t want to miss out on being with someone I love because of what might happen down the line,” she told Hello!.

The Hoff told reporters earlier this month that the pair would finally wed on July 31.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, he said: “We’re gonna get married on the 31st, you know, in Italy. My birthday is on Tuesday and then we shoot out to the UK and a few places and then we’re gonna get married – but a very small wedding with her family from Wales in Puglia, which is southern Italy.

“And then from there we’re gonna go to the Maldives and we’ll stay underwater for about two weeks.”

It’s the third marriage for Hasselhoff, who was previously married to Catherine Hickland and Pamela Bach, with who he shares daughters Hayley and Taylor.