“The Mask” star Jim Carrey has become embroiled in a legal saga, with relatives of his deceased ex-girlfriend, Cathriona White, claiming that he’s responsible for her death. Read on for a timeline of Carrey’s legal woes in the matter.
September 2015: White (pictured left with Carrey) dies at age 28, of what authorities ultimately determine was a suicide.
October 2015: Carrey attends White’s funeral in Ireland, helping to carry her coffin.
July 7, 2016: Carrey blasts the release of White’s autopsy report, saying in a statement, “When I came to Hollywood to make it as a comedian, I soon learned that the details of my private life would be handed out to the media like free dinner vouchers. I never dreamed that the people I love most in the world would also be on the menu. What a shame.”
Sept. 19, 2016: White’s estranged husband, Mark Burton, files a lawsuit against Carrey, claiming that the actor caused White’s death. Burton claims that Carrey obtained “highly addictive, and in this case deadly” drugs under the pseudonym Arthur King, and provided White with those drugs. Carrey’s lawyers call the suit an “abhorrent money-grab scheme.”
Sept. 22, 2016: Burton files an amended complaint, claiming that Carrey also gave White two forms of herpes and gonorrhea without telling her that he had contracted the diseases.
Sept. 23, 2016: Carrey rips into Burton in a statement: “Is this the way a ‘husband’ honors the memory of his ‘wife’? The real disease here is greed, shameful greed!”
Oct. 11, 2016: White’s mother, Brigid Sweetman, files suit. In addition to echoing most of Burton’s allegations, Sweetman claims that Carrey tested positive for STDs in 2013, using the pseudonym “Jose Lopez” for the test. Carrey’s lawyer Martin Singer issues a statement soon after saying that White had complained of having a “contentious relationship” with Sweetman, and claimed that they had been “estranged for years.”
Oct. 12, 2016: Sweetman issues a statement saying she will drop her lawsuit if Carrey can produce the test results showing that he did not contract STDs. If not, “then Carrey and his attorney must admit they have lied to the media and the public. The public has a right to know when they have been lied to.”
