Jim Carrey is firing back after a lawsuit filed on Monday accused him of providing drugs to his late girlfriend Cathriona White, calling it “an outlandish shakedown.”
“The Coroner’s Report unequivocally concluded after a complete investigation that Cathriona White committed suicide,” Marty Singer, Carrey’s attorney, said in a statement obtained by TheWrap. “Ms. White’s suicide is a tragedy that is being exploited in a completely meritless lawsuit in pursuit of a payday.”
The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by White’s husband Mark Burton, accuses the “Dumb and Dumber To” star of illegally obtaining “highly addictive and, in this case deadly” drugs under the name Arthur King, then giving them to White, subsequently causing her death.
The actor denies having provided White prescription medications, claiming the 28-year-old stole the drugs from Carrey.
“My client’s prescriptions were legally obtained medications that were prescribed to him by his doctor in accordance with routine practices that are used all the time, and which are regularly used by SAG members and others with the knowledge of their doctors and insurers, to protect the privacy of well-known individuals,” Singer continued, presumably explaining the use of an alias to obtain the drugs.
White died “on or about September 24, 2015,” Burton’s lawsuit reads, with the coroner determining that she took her own life via an overdose of drugs including Ambien, Propranolol and Percocet. Burton’s lawsuit claims Carrey “wrongfully and illegally supplied, marketed and distributed the Drugs to White on or about September 21.”
“It is despicable that Burton, who claims to have been Ms. White’s husband but never lived with her and did not even reside in the same state she did, now comes forward trying to cash in on her death,” Singer inveighed. “We are confident that the Court will see through this abhorrent money-grab scheme.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.