He became the first actor to ever receive a $20 million paycheck for a role in a film and with 2024 marking the 30th anniversary of the start of his blockbuster career, Jim Carrey should still be a Hollywood heavyweight.
But unsavory allegations surrounding the tragic suicide of his on-off girlfriend have cast a dark shadow over the star and led to the cancellation of his comedy career, that saw him rack up hit after hit – from Ace Ventura to The Mask, Man On The Moon to The Truman Show.
The turning point came in 2015 when Cathriona White, 30, an Irish make-up artist took her own life, and lurid details about their relationship began to emerge, including notes in which she accused the actor – who was 25 years her senior – of introducing her to debauched life of sex and drugs and ‘giving her’ herpes.
While Carey flew to her native Cappawhite, Co Tipperary, for the funeral, a rift with her family soon developed and her mother and estranged husband sued the actor, claiming he’d caused her mental distress that contributed to her suicide.
The case was thrown out and he swiftly retreated from the limelight, but after four years away from mainstream cinema, the Canadian actor began a slow and tentative return to film in 2020 with a starring role in Sonic The Hedgehog, the first of three animated adventures based around the escapades of Sega’s greatest export.
Whilst promoting the films sequel in 2022, Carrey, 62, said he was retiring from acting and yet this week he was back on the red carpet for the UK premiere of the third installment, joking that he ‘needs the money’.
Jim Carrey with ex-girlfriend Cathriona White who took her own life in 2015, Her tumultuous relationship with the actor was laid bare after her death
Jim Carrey at Cathriona White’s funeral in Cappawhite, Co Tipperary carrying her coffin
Charges against Jim Carrey were dismissed in wrongful death lawsuit launched by Irish family of his ex girlfriend after his attorney claimed her ‘STD results were forged’
Speaking in London on Wednesday evening, the Canadian actor suggested his personal fortune – once thought to be as much as $120million – has dwindled.
‘I came back to this universe because I get to play a genius, which is a bit of a stretch,’ he said. ‘And you know, I bought a lot of stuff and I need the money, frankly.’
Whatever the truth about his financial situation, one thing is clear – Carey is not ready to retire, despite claiming two years ago: ‘I have enough. I’ve done enough’.
Now the question is whether he will be able to escape the shadow that the demise of his relationship with Ms White cast over his glittering career.
The couple met in 2012, when Cathriona was 27 and Carrey was 52, and they had an on-off relationship until 2015, when she was found dead from a prescription drug overdose.
Her death was ruled as suicide by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, and Carrey was a pallbearer at her funeral in Ireland and was pictured comforting her friends and family.
Cathriona with her mother Brigid, who launched a lawsuit against Jim Carrey after her daughter’s death
Cathriona had ‘depressive tendencies’ according to those close to her, and wrote several suicide notes addressing Carrey before her death in 2015
Jim Carrey attends the Sonic The Hedgehog 3 UK Premiere, where he said that he’d come out of retirement because he ‘needs the money’
In the weeks that followed, however, a picture of the couple’s tumultuous relationship began to emerge when a note Cathriona wrote two years before her death gave a damning description of how she felt the actor treated her.
The note written on her iPad was discovered by lawyers working on behalf of her mother Brigid Sweetman, and estranged husband, Mark Burton, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Carrey, saying he gave her the pills to kill herself after obtaining them in a false name and giving her STDs.
‘You did good things for me but being with you broke me down as a person, Jim. I was promised Jekyll and instead I got Hyde,’ she wrote in the note.
‘Because I love you I would have stuck out Hyde all year and done everything he wanted to be with Jekyll for 5 of those, but you threw me away when you absorbed anything worthwhile that was left of me.’
She also spoke of the shame she felt over having STDs, which she claimed she’d contracted from Carrey.
‘You have not thought about the stigma I have to live with for the rest of my life, you have not apologized or once asked is there something you can do to make it better or even felt bad for it,’ she wrote.
After Cathriona questioned Carrey about STD symptoms, he abruptly broke up with her and said he didn’t want to talk anymore
‘You gave me HSV and HPV, I want you to apologize for it because you care enough to. I want you to understand that however little a thing seems to you, it ruins a girl’s life.
‘I want you to take care when you are with other girls and pay attention to your body your actions effect people.’
The Irish make-up artist also said: ‘Before you, I might not have had very much but I had respect, I was a happy person.
‘I loved life, I was confident and I felt good in my skin and was proud of most decisions I made, I met you, you introduced me to cocaine, prostitutes, mental abuse and disease.
‘You did good things for me but being with you broke me down as a person, Jim.’
Texts between the pair showed how Cathriona became concerned she had an STD in January 2013, and texted Carrey, who replied: ‘Aggravated folacles [sic] or bumps are normal when you shave or have vigorous sex.’
The following month White again wrote to Carrey about finding ‘a couple of bumps’ and wanting to get ‘checked’, telling him that she had tested before they got together so she couldn’t have caught an STD from anyone else.
In response, Carrey texted back and ended their relationship.
‘Don’t want to talk anymore… I’m done. You have become too much drama,’ he told her.
Cathriona White as a child with her father. She was buried alongside him in her hometown
In response to her family’s legal action, Carrey then launched a counter lawsuit, dropping the bombshell that he had already paid Cathriona an undisclosed sum of money in 2013 to settle her STD claims, while demanding her mother and husband pay him back three times the original settlement.
He described White as a ‘beautiful but immature and emotionally damaged woman’ at the start of their relationship and alleged that her former attorney took advantage of her ‘warm and exciting’ romance with the star to profit.
The actor also said that Miss White had blackmailed him by threatening to go public with what he said were false claims that he had given her sexually transmitted diseases unless he paid her millions of dollars.
Carrey was later cleared after his attorney found that Miss White had edited the information on a friend’s STD test to make it look like it had belonged to her so that she could prove she was clean before entering into a relationship with Carrey.
Despite their earlier legal battle, the pair did get back together in 2015.
The actor said he forgave her and that the pair continued building a future and started working on a co-habitation agreement so that she could permanently move in with him.
Cathriona was a make-up artist and aspiring actress. She wrote several notes to Carrey before her death in 2015, detailing her turmoil over their relationship
She was upset, he said, by his insistence that she sign a non-disclosure confidentiality agreement but that she otherwise seemed ‘happy’ until her 30th birthday on September 14.
He claimed that her biological mother Brigid, who she’d been estranged from, sent her an upsetting message on Facebook, saying she was ‘worthless’ and would ‘never amount to anything’.
It was this and her apparent guilt over ‘extorting’ him two years earlier which prompted her suicide, according to Carrey.
White, who according to loved ones had depressive tendencies, wrote several suicide notes before she took her own life. One, written in 2012, describes Carrey as a ‘strong and wonderful human being’.
‘I love Jim and I’m sorry I brought turmoil into his life,’ she wrote.
In May 2013, another note, written to her attorney, told a different story. It demanded that the world know he was responsible for her death.
‘I want you to get together and release to the press about all the physical abuse, mental abuse and diseases that Jim gave me.
‘Unfortunately, I don’t have the the words to put to paper I am too numb,’ she wrote.
Her final suicide note, which were discovered near her body in 2015, was addressed to the actor.
It showed no signs that she was angry with him but hinted that their relationship had come into trouble.
‘Jim, I thought we had chosen each other. I believed it meant something and I let myself relax in your arms in the safety of being sure of one thing.. us.
‘If everything went sideways we had each other. I’ve spent 3 days now in disbelief that you’re not here.
‘I thought when I saw you it would be OK again and it’s not,’ it said.
She signed it off: ‘I love you, please forgive me I’m just not for this world. Peace and love to all your hearts.’
Before her body was found, Carrey had sent a text message asking where his missing prescription painkillers were.
The LA Coroner’s report – obtained by Daily Mail Online – showed that Cathriona had taken the actor’s anti-inflammatory pills along with a cocktail of other drugs to end her life.
Her body was found by friends who had gone to her residence after a third party told them she had broken up with Carrey the week before.
Her still active Instagram account, called ‘littleirishcat’, shows snippets of her life living in LA.
Dining at Nobu, travelling the world and posing with her beloved dog Ella and friends, her social media seems a happy memory of what her life was like.
After his appearance at her funeral, Carrey took a long break from the limelight.
Jim Carrey at funeral of Catriona White at her funeral in Ireland as he hugs Cathriona’s sister Lisa
Jim Carrey was sued by Cathorina White’s mother, Brigid Sweetman, and estranged husband, Mark Burton (pictured), for providing the drugs to then 30-year-old and said he had obtained them illegally under a false name
Carrey sold his LA mansion last year for £25 million
Settled in the hills in his £25 million Los Angeles mansion – which he sold last year – he took up a new career.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2018, the actor said during his break from showbusiness he had taken up a career as a visual artist, with paintings, drawings and sculptures.
During the 2016 election he delighted his 18 million Twitter followers with political cartoons, mocking all things Trump, on an account which is now deleted.
And in 2017 he explored his love for art in the 2017 documentary I Needed Colour.
Speaking on his fame during the interview he said: ‘You can dream about it all you want, but until you get it, you don’t realize that it’s really not a place that’s very comfortable for very long.’
And it was down to being in the public eye that Carrey said a lot of his other relationships failed.
At the beginning of his career he first dated singer Linda Ronstadt, now 78, in 1983.
In 1987 he married former actress Melissa Womer and their daughter Jane Erin was born later. They later divorced in 1995.
September 1996, he married his Dumb and Dumber co-star Lauren Holly, but it was over by 1997.
In 1999 he became engaged to his Me, Myself and Irene co-star Renee Zellweger but by 2002 was in a relationship with actress January Jones.
From 2005 to 2010 he was then in a relationship with model Jenny McCarthy – before meeting Miss White two years later.
His next relationship was in 2019 when he attended the Golden Globes party with Ginger Gonzaga, the pair split after less than a year of dating and it is unknown whom he is in a relationship with now.
Suffering from depression from a young age, the comedian also took Prozac, an anti-depressant, in the 90s.
He has previously admitted it is only ‘valuable for short periods of time’ and prevents people from ‘addressing the real problem’.
‘I was on it for a long time,’ he said in 2004.
‘It may have helped me out of a jam for a little bit.
‘I don’t take anything now, I rarely drink coffee.
‘No alcohol and no drugs, life is too beautiful.’
Once considered one of the most profitable actors of his time, the Golden Globe winner began his career by performing impressions.
Born to a failed singer Kathleen and his father Percy who was a self-taught saxophonist but gave up his musical dreams to support the family – James Carrey was the youngest of four.
His love for comedy came from his mother being addicted to pain medication – with him committed to making her laugh as much as he could.
The family became homeless when his father lost his job and shortly after he dropped out of school at 16 to pursue a life on stage.
He first got booked for a sitcom called The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where a 21-year-old Carrey would impersonate Elvis Presley, Clint Eastwood and E.T.
After struggling to book anymore jobs, he then switched from impressions to stand-up comedy where from 1990 to 1994, Carrey became a regular cast member of the ensemble comedy television series In Living Colour.
His popularity on the show then helped him land a role in Ace Venture: Pet Detective in 1994 which went on to gross £70 million.
The few years that followed then saw him get paid £5 million to appear in The Mask, another £5 million form Dumb and Dumber and another £5 million to reprise his role in Ace Ventura.
Carrey received his first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor for his work in The Mask and was voted second on Quigley’s Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll, behind Tom Hanks.
Jim Carrey as The Mask next to Cameron Diaz
Jim Carrey alongside Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves for the launch of Sonic 3
In 1996 Jim Carrey became the first ever actor to receive a $20 million salary for performing in films, beginning with The Cable Guy.
The year 2000 saw him star in Christmas classic The Grinch, and then Bruce Almighty and Yes Man.
In the 2010’s the actor began to appear in fewer films, until 2020 when Sonic the Hedgehog was released.
This week he was on the red carpet alongside Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves for the launch of Sonic 3.
A hard launch back in front of cameras, it’s thought to be the first step from Carrey to begin working as an actor again.
For confidential support call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255