Dean Cain on ex McCready's suicide: 'I'm not surprised'

A famous ex of Mindy McCready's is speaking out.

Dean Cain, who was engaged to the singer for about a year starting in 1997, tells People, "I'm saddened to hear of her passing, but I'm not surprised."

Apparently, it wasn't drugs and alcohol that ultimately forced the former Lois & Clark star to break off their union, but McCready's manipulative, dishonest behavior. "She was never abusive or addictive with me, but red flags were everywhere," he tells the magazine. "I saw all the bad signs and told her to get out." To escape the situation, he had to leave his own home for a hotel. "Everything she did was a manipulation of sorts. She would just get combative."

"I can't paint too pretty a picture," Cain, 46, adds. "She would start arguments, start drama. Things weren't allowed to be good."

Cain, who fathered a son with a later girlfriend, cut McCready out. "When I did speak to her, truth didn't come out," he says. "She was kind of poisonous and not somebody I was going to have in my life anymore – or anywhere around my son."

As for McCready's sons, Cain is heartbroken. "My first thought was of the poor kids. To think about the legacy those boys have been left, it's just tragic. ... All her troubles were self-inflicted. She had everything. She was a tremendous talent but everything about it was a waste."