“I wish he never did it. I wish he never met her,” Drew Carey said of Gareth Pursehouse, who has pled not guilty to the murder of Amie Harwick

Drew Carey is opening up about the toll his ex-fiancée Amie Harwick’s death had on him — and how forgiveness helped him to heal.

Appearing on Friday’s episode of The Talk @ Home, Carey, 61, spoke about a lesson he made sure to pass on when he returned to hosting The Price Is Right following sex therapist Harwick’s death in February.

“After Amie’s murder, I took a week off. Really, I couldn’t function,” the game-show host said. “My first day back we taped the high school show for ‘Kids Week.’ It was all high school kids. It was my very first show back, and everybody knew what happened to me. And so I took time during the break to talk to these kids.”

Carey said that “as soon’ as he could, he told the students about how he had forgiven Gareth Pursehouse, Harwick’s ex-boyfriend, who has been accused of strangling the marriage therapist and throwing her off her balcony. (Earlier this month, Pursehouse pleaded not guilty to her murder.)

“I wish he never did it. I wish he never met her,” Carey continued, noting that he also addressed the fact that “when you forgive people that doesn’t mean you have to hang out with them either.”

“It’s important for high school kids to hear, people in general to hear,” Carey added. “I really try to practice, and I fall short all the time, I really try to practice instant forgiveness and unconditional love. The closest you can get to that, the better you are.”

Drew Carey and Amie Harwick. Michael Bezjian/WireImage

In the weeks following Harwick’s death, Carey tearfully reflected on their relationship — and the enduring love they felt for each other, even after they ended their engagement in 2018.

“Back in September 2018, I was in a beautiful, great, best relationship of my life with a woman named Amie Harwick,” Carey said on his SiriusXM show Drew Carey’s Friday Night Freak-Out.

“She was a sex therapist and mental health advocate. She had a PhD and a master’s degree, and she was beautiful and fun, and cared deeply about people and improving their lives and was just a joy to be around. I was so in love with her,” he said. “Even after we broke up, we still loved each other very much. Even though we broke up the engagement, I was still so in love with her. And she loved me back.”

Carey also spoke out about Harwick’s death in a statement to PEOPLE, saying, “Amie and I had a love that people are lucky to have once in a lifetime.”

“She was positive force in the world, a tireless and unapologetic champion for women, and passionate about her work as a therapist. I am overcome with grief. I would like to thank you in advance for giving myself and everyone who loved Amie privacy while we try to work through this tragic situation,” he added.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.