Jim Carrey: Mother of late ex-girlfriend Cathriona White sues actor over daughter's death
The legal challenge against Jim Carrey from relatives of his late ex-girlfriend Cathriona White continues to mount. The actor is now facing a second lawsuit after the mother of Ms White filed a wrongful death and violation of the drug dealer liability act suit.
Ms White, an Irish make-up artist, was found dead in her Los Angeles apartment in September 2015. A post-mortem determined the 30-year-old died from an overdose of various prescription drugs.
Carrey and Ms White had an on-off relationship and were first linked together in 2012. Her name appeared on his social feeds in the month before her death and Carrey, 54, was a pallbearer at her funeral in her home-town of Co Tipperary in Ireland.
In September, her estranged husband Mark Burton, a cameraman from Oregan, launched a wrongful death lawsuit against Carrey over her suicide, accusing Carrey of using his “immense wealth and celebrity status” to illegally obtain and distribute prescription drugs involved in her death.
Mr Burton married Ms White in 2013.
Carrey’s lawyer Marty Singer branded Mr Burton's suit “predatory” and “malicious”. His lawyers have previously said the allegations against him are “bogus” and “categorically disputed”.
Ms Sweetman and Mr Burton are both being represented by the same lawyer, Michael Avenatti.
In a suit filed in Los Angeles Supreme Court, Ms Sweetman claims he illegally provided Ms White with prescription drugs involved in her suicide.
Ms Sweetman also repeats allegations made by Ms White's husband that Carrey gave her daughter three sexually transmitted diseases before her death in September 2015.
In response to Ms Sweetman's lawsuit, Mr Singer said: “It is understandable that a mother who has lost a daughter will look for someone to blame.
”But in directing her grief and rage at Jim Carrey and joining this ridiculous lawyer's attempt to capitalise on Cathriona's suicide, Ms Sweetman is heading down the same dark path as Mark Burton.”
Mr Singer claimed Ms White had a “contentious” relationship with her mother, who was was estranged from, and “lamented” how she was forced to leave the family home at 15.
In a statement, Ms Sweetman said: “Jim Carrey should be ashamed of what he did to my daughter. And he should be ashamed for how he has used his Hollywood attorneys to badmouth Cat's husband Mark with the hope that nobody will hold him responsible for what he did."
In response to Mr Burton's lawsuit, Carrey said: ”Is this the way a 'husband' honours the memory of his 'wife?' The real disease here is greed, shameful greed."
In his response to Mr Burton's lawsuit, Mr Singer also said at the time: ”My client will not pay money to end this [...] lawsuit, and this malicious case will be dismissed.
“Mr Carrey has suffered a great deal in the last year with the suicide of the woman he dearly loved."
Carrey's publicist directed The Independent to the statement released by Mr Singer. She did not comment any further.
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