Drew Carey, 66, reveals he is STILL not dating 5 years after ex Amie was strangled and thrown off a balcony

Drew Carey has opened up about his mental health struggles over the decades.

The 66-year-old Price is Right host has told UsWeekly in their new cover story that he had difficulty finding happiness after his father died when he was 8.

Then he tried to kill himself twice: at 18 and in his twenties.

In 2020, Carey was heartbroken when his former fiancée, Amie Harwick, a therapist, was murdered by an ex-boyfriend.

Losing Amie was painful because he still loved her very much at the time of her death and they had agreed to meet up to discuss their split.

He has been so impacted by the loss of Harwick that to this day he has not dated anyone new and has only 'platonic' female friends.

'I think about her every day. It’s such a loss. Her death still affects me and my ideas about relationships and intimacy,' he told the site. They split before she died. 

She was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Gareth Pursehouse, who was convicted of killing her by strangulation and throwing her from the third-floor balcony of her home.

'I got a text from her out of the blue. She said, “Hey, it’s Amie. I’ve been thinking a lot about forgiveness. I would love to get together with you and talk about some things.” 

'I texted her that I loved her and that I’d see her the next week. I heard from one of her friends that she shed tears about my saying that I loved her still. Which I did. I loved her madly even though we were broken up.'

And here was no closure. 

'The next day she was murdered, and we never got a chance to get together. It destroyed me for a while. I still don’t date. I have women I go out with and spend time with, but it’s all platonic, and I don’t care about anything else. Amie’s death really affected everything.'

The star - who lost 80lbs in recent years - told Us Weekly that his struggles with depression started when he was a child but he has learned to cope with depression thanks to therapy.

'My dad died when I was 8, and soon after that I began biting my nails. I was a lifelong nail-biter, even as an adult, and it was really bad,' said the star.

'When I was in grade school and junior high, I not only bit my nails, I’d bite my cuticles. I’d bite the pads of my fingers and tear the skin off until they bled. It hurt to hold a pencil, and I would always try to hide my hands because I was ashamed of how they looked.'

And he felt a lot of 'shame and self-hate.'

Drew said: 'It was so overwhelming, I had to get away from it. At around 18 in college, I started buying self-help books, and those really saved me.'

A book by Wayne Dyer helped him learn about guilt and letting go of it.

'It really hit me: What am I walking around feeling guilty about everything for? In the hallway at school, instead of saying, “Excuse me,” I would say, “I’m sorry.” The idea of looking someone in the eye was tough for me,' said Carey.

'I could be talking to you, but I’d be looking at your shoulders or at the wall or the ground. I had this feeling that I didn’t deserve anything: I’m just little Drew Carey from this poor family in Cleveland, this town that everybody makes fun of, and don’t mind me, hope I’m not in your way. 

'Oh, but I’ll tell you a joke to get you to like me. Self-help books helped get me out of it. And then after that, therapy.'

And he addressed trying to kill himself at 18 and in his 20s. 

'Well, I didn’t know what I was doing. The first time I tried to kill myself, I was drinking. I had a couple beers, and I took a whole bottle of Sominex, which is not strong enough to kill you. 

'But I’d heard if you wanted to kill yourself, you took sleeping pills. Sominex were the only ones I knew of. I told my fraternity brothers, “Hey, I just took all these pills,” and they took me to the medical center. 

'While I was throwing up over the toilet, my friend Paul was holding my shoulders, and he started singing the jingle: “Take Sominex tonight and sleep… sleep… sleep.” I laughed so hard. It made me feel so much better being able to joke about it.'

Then he saw a counselor. 

'Everybody needs a therapist, whether you see a professional or not. When you talk to a friend or a bartender or Reddit, you are seeking therapeutic help for a problem. 

'Why not see a pro who has a degree in psychology and understands how the brain works, what neurons do and how habits are formed?'

And meditation helped.

'I took a 10-day class through dhamma.org, and it was life-changing. It’s based on Buddhist teachings, but they don’t try to convert you. And it is funded by donations, so you don’t have to pay if you can’t afford it. You just sign up and show up. I was always pretty chill. But this put me on another level.'

Humor is his way out of everything, he shared.

'And I have no objection to people using dark humor... Still, sometimes I need to have serious time and ponder life instead of laughing with everyone. I need balance.'

He also said not going online is a good idea: 'I stay off social media at night.'

In 1991 he debuted on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He then headlines the TV series, The Drew Carey Show. 

Drew took over hosting CBS' The Price Is Right in 2007 from Bob Barker – who died in 2023 aged 99 – and has since revamped the show with a new set, logo and theme music.