Dean Cain was once engaged to Mindy McCready. A very long time ago.
Speaking out for the first time since her suicide, he says she was deeply troubled even 15 years ago, and not just because of substance abuse issues.
It was her manipulations and lies that torpedoed their romance, Cain says.
"I'm saddened to hear of her passing, but I'm not surprised," says Cain, 46, echoing the statements made earlier this week by Mindy's ex Billy McKnight.
They lived together and were engaged, but things imploded after a year.
Speaking to People in the aftermath of Mindy McCready's death, Cain sadly - and tellingly - struggled to remember any sort of joy in their relationship:
"I can't paint too pretty a picture. She would start arguments, start drama," the actor recalls. "It was as if things weren't allowed to be good."
"She was never abusive or addictive with me, but the red flags were everywhere," he adds. "I saw all the bad signs and told her to get out."
At the end, Cain fled his own home for a hotel to escape her, because "Everything she did was a manipulation of sorts. She would just get combative."
The single dad (it's not hers) had severed all ties with McCready.
"When I did speak to her, truth didn't come out," he said. She was poisonous and not somebody I was going to have in my life or anywhere around my son."
McCready leaves behind two boys, one by McKnight and the other by David Wilson, who died just 36 days before McCready under similar circumstances.
"My first thought was of the poor kids. To think about the legacy those boys have been left, it's just tragic," Cain said. "All her troubles were self-inflicted. She had everything."
"She was a tremendous talent but everything about it was a waste."
