"I just want him to be happy and at peace. I think his body just shut down, it gave up. Finally. If this is what it takes, then may he be in peace and not struggle anymore." - Nicole Eggert to LIFE & STYLE

Corey Haim, beloved yet troubled '80s child star, was found dead in his Hollywood apartment on March 10. In the wake of his death, old friends have come forward to open up about their tragic loss. Few knew Corey better than his Blown Away co-star and Baywatch heroine Nicole Eggert. She befriended and dated Corey -- he even asked her to marry him -- while both were just teenagers. "Corey was always open about having a drug-abuse problem. He didn't lie about it or hide it. But he didn't want to die. It became hard over the years staying close to a friend who was in a place like that," Nicole tells Life & Style. "You sort of have to distance yourself. It's tough love -- but you can't be an enabler. Enablers don't help. When Corey was a minor, I'll tell you, I saw quite a few doctors and adults enable him. But there was always a deep friendship and a deep love between Corey and myself. I just want him to be happy and at peace. I think his body just shut down, it gave up. Finally. If this is what it takes, then may he be in peace and not struggle anymore."

In the days after his death, it was reported that Corey may have received the medication from an illegal underground drug ring. Yet despite signs that Corey may have overdosed, friends say he was doing his best to defeat addiction once and for all during his final days. "He was motivated, he was working out, he was sticking to his program," Mark Heaslip, Corey's agent at the time of his death, says. Corey was also battling isolation, according to Liana Mendoza, his co-star in the recently shot movie Decisions. "He came to the set on days he wasn't even shooting," Mendoza tells Life & Style. "He seemed lonely. I regret not befriending him."

"He had a spirit that was beautiful, and he had a lot of love to share with his friends," two of Corey's Lost Boys co-stars, Brooke McCarter and Billy Wirth, told Life & Style in a statement. "Corey had an amazing heart. It's a really sad day."

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