Former child star Corey Feldman has been left grief-stricken and saddled with remorse following the death of his old mentor, Michael Jackson, telling the media he never got to mend the wounds from their famous -- if not odd -- friendship.

The 'Stand By Me' actor, who hasn't spoken to Jackson since 2001, said in a statement to TMZ that he was "filled with tremendous sadness and remorse" over the news and that from now on he'll choose to remember the "good times we shared" and not the bad. He appeared on the Today show on Friday to share similar sentiments. Watch:



Jackson befriended Feldman when the actor was a teen and they were inseperable at Hollywood events. But as the young star grew older, the singer moved on, leaving Feldman bitter.

The bad times between the two have never been clearly defined, but last year Feldman slammed Jackson in bold terms."He did real damage in my overall life," he said. "Michael would sit and talk to me for hours and he would listen. Then he would get bored. The biggest thing that Michael's done to children is befriending the ones that are in need and then abandoning them."

Feldman also sparked rumors when during a 2008 episode of 'The Two Coreys,' his reality series with Corey Haim, he admitted he had been abused by someone as a youth. Blogs and media outlets began speculating that the abuser was Jackson, but Feldman later denied it was the singer.

He was also called to testify at Jackson's child molestation trial in 2005.

On 'Today,' Feldman seemed genuinely sad to have not been able to mend his relationship. He was supposed to see the late singer again at LaToya Jackson's birthday party recently, but the singer was not able to attend.

"Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to mend things," he said in an interview with Meredith Vieira, "and I think we left things a bit open-ended, which is always a bit hard."

"In the early years he was everything to me. I had a really rough upbringing ... and he was someone that could understand, he was somebody that could relate. He seemed to be able to listen to my problems and accept them and understand them and give me -- not advice -- but kind of brotherly affection. An ear from somebody that can listen and understand."