Nicole Eggert Opens Up About Engagement to Corey Haim amid His Addiction: ‘I Really Saw the Darkness’ (Exclusive)

Nicole Eggert recalls the ups and downs of her relationship with the late Corey Haim.

The Baywatch alum, 52, explains the emotions of being engaged to Haim, who died of pneumonia in 2010 at the age of 38, during his addiction. The two starred in several films together, including the one from 1992 Blown and in 1993 All for love.

Eggert will appear in the upcoming four-part documentary series Baywatch: The American Dream. Directed by Matt Felker, it will deal with the lives of the cast of the 1989-2001 series on and off screen. The actress was a part Baywatch acted from 1992–1994.

She tells PEOPLE exclusively that she loved being with Haim on the set of their joint projects, but behind closed doors things got “difficult.”

“It was terrible for me. It was creepy – she says. “I remember the first time I saw cocaine from him, but he wasn’t trying to get me to do anything with it. It was his private thing, which in retrospect would seem a little strange, but he never tried to drag me into it.”

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Photo by United Archives GmbH/Alamy

The two of them met in the early 90s on the set of the film Blown, and dates from 1991 to 1993.

At the time, she says, she was negotiating her acting career while trying to cope with three years of sexual abuse, between the ages of 14 and 17, by Charles in charge costar Scott Baio. (Baio has repeatedly denied the allegations.) Haim, who said he was also sexually assaulted, talked to Eggert about his trauma, but she says she never told him about hers.

“I think I was still just in denial. I mean, I was really in denial until recently when I started unpacking it and going, ‘Okay, here it is,'” she explains. “But I also felt embarrassed. Unfortunately, you carry shame and dishonor. I never wanted to be seen as a victim.”

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She continues: “When I went through it and went through it, I didn’t like it, so I didn’t talk about it.”

Baywatch Co/Kobal/Shutterstock

Most of their two-year relationship and short-lived engagement revolved around Haim’s struggle with addiction, which was a constant presence in his life. Eggert says she would have taken him to the hospital because she didn’t know how to help him when he ran out of drugs.

“He would go there [the hospital] get things. When we were on set, the producers would give it to us; they would supply the medicine and the prescriptions are mostly what I saw,” she reveals. “But no, if he was shaking and shivering in the middle of the night and wanted to go to the emergency room, I would take him. Since I wasn’t in that space or that one — I didn’t know what to do. I said, just take him to the hospital if he wants to go there.”

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Spending so much time together on set, ex Charles in charge star says she was able to enjoy herself with Haim, and they both had their own lives in the spotlight. The couple got engaged, and from the outside, everything was going smoothly.

“He proposed to me and we worked,” she says. “We were on set, everything was so much fun.”

When they moved in together after filming wrapped, Eggert saw what Haim’s timeless days looked like. She “quickly” realized that she “had to wash her hands of” the relationship.

“We went back to LA and he didn’t have a place because he was on the road filming and stuff, so I let him come to my place,” she says. “And then I saw real behavior and real darkness. And I couldn’t live with it, and I couldn’t condone it or support it or anything like that. That’s when I really saw the darkness.”

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After Eggert cut ties with Haim, she says she kept in touch with him only “here and there.” Still, until his death, nearly two decades later, she says she loved him.

Now a single mother of two daughters, Keegan, 12, and Dilyn, 25, Eggert — who was diagnosed with stage 2 cribriform breast cancer in early December 2023 and revealed her health battle exclusively to PEOPLE — says it’s been tough for her journey, but he will always remember his love for the late star.

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“I would always consider him a friend forever,” she says. “And I think he would say the same.”

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