Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson says she can forgive (but won’t forget) the murderer of her mother, brother and young nephew: William Balfour.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Hudson says that Balfour’s upbringing is more to blame for his actions than anything else. “I’m not letting him off the hook for anything,” said Hudson, adding “I feel like, for the most part, it’s not his fault. It’s what he was taught. How he was brought up. We tried to offer love, but he was so far gone, he couldn’t even see that.”

Less than a month after her brother-in-law, William Balfour, was convicted of murdering her 57-year-old mother, Darnell Donerson, her 29-year-old brother, Jason Hudson, and her 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, on October 24, 2008, the Academy Award winner shared her grief during an appearance on September 9 episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter.

On July 24, Balfour, 31, was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of ever being paroled.