Drew Carey found the closure he needed to “finally move on” from the 2020 murder of his ex-fiancée, Amie Harwick.
Speaking to People in an interview published Wednesday, the television host said Gareth Pursehouse’s murder conviction and subsequent sentencing to life in prison late last year brought him peace.
“I can barely remember the guy’s name — that’s how much I’ve put him out of my life — but ever since the final sentencing, it feels like we’ve all let out a breath and are able to finally move on,” he explained.
“The whole process is over now, and there’s nothing else to be done and nothing else to worry about. … Just speaking just for myself, it’s been quite a load off.”
In February 2020, Harwick was found unresponsive in her Hollywood Hills home before she died in the hospital due to blunt force injuries to her head. She was 38.
Three years later, in September 2023, Pursehouse, who was her ex-boyfriend, was found guilty of first-degree murder after strangling her and throwing her over the third-floor balcony of her house.
He had stalked her all night before attacking her inside the home. At that time, she had already obtained two restraining orders against him.
Pursehouse, 45, was sentenced to life in prison last December.
“She’s with me always,” Carey, 65, told People. “A lot of times I’ll feel like I’ll be thinking things through, and it’s almost like I can hear her voice saying, ‘Well, really, it’s because of this and that.’ It’s really nice, honestly.”
Carey and the family therapist met in 2017 before getting engaged a year later. However, they called it quits before making it down the aisle in late 2018.
Shortly after her death, the comedian claimed that he and Harwick were still head over heels for each other.
“She was beautiful and fun, and cared deeply about people and improving their lives and was just a joy to be around. And I was so in love with her,” he recalled on his SiriusXM radio show.
“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.”
He also said Pursehouse had been stalking her for 10 years and that she was “deathly afraid of” him.
Following her death, Carey called Harwick “a positive force in the world” and “a tireless and unapologetic champion for women.”
