CARREY TO FACE COURT OVER HIS EX-LOVER’S SUICIDE
ACTOR Jim Carrey is facing a wrongful death lawsuit over the suicide of his ex-girlfriend Cathriona White.
Mark Burton, estranged husband of Ms White, has lodged a complaint claiming the 54-year-old star of The Mask used his “immense wealth and celebrity status” to illegally obtain and distribute prescription drugs involved in her death.
In papers filed with Los Angeles Superior Court, Mr Burton said Carrey provided the drugs to Ms White despite knowing she was “ill-equipped” to take them, prone to depression and that she had previously tried to take her own life.
In response, Carrey described the lawsuit as a “heartless attempt” to exploit him and “the woman I loved”.
Bogus
Ms White, a make-up artist from Cappawhite, Co Tipperary, Ireland, was found dead at her LA home in September 2015 after overdosing on prescription drugs.
She had broken up with Carrey the week before and left a suicide note addressed to the actor saying she was “just not for this world”.
In the lawsuit, Mr Burton claimst he drugs that caused Ms White’s death were not prescribed to her and Carrey had obtained them under the bogus name Arthur King.
According to a coroner’s report released in July, Carrey sent a text message to Ms White a day before her body was found asking where his painkillers had gone from under his sink.
Mr Burton, of Portland, Oregon, claims the message was a “bogus text ... in an effort to cover up his conduct and complicity in her death” by “pretending as though he had misplaced the drugs and insinuating White may have taken them from Carrey without his knowledge”.
In a statement, Carrey said: “I will not tolerate this heartless attempt to exploit me or the woman I loved. Cat’s troubles were born long before I met her.”