You meant well. They still got hurt. Both are true, and only one needs fixing by you.

Good intentions and a bad outcome sit together more often than people expect, and insisting on the first delays dealing with the second. Your intention is already settled and needs no defending, since nobody is going to prosecute you for it. What is still open is the hurt, which exists regardless of what you were going for. Treating those as one argument turns a small repair into a long fight.

Deal with the part that is still live. Ask what would help and do that before you explain yourself. Your intentions will come out fine, and they will come out later, which is the right order.