Jim Carrey Releases Statement on Wrongful Death Lawsuit
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Jim Carrey has fired back against the wrongful death lawsuit that blames him for his late girlfriend Cathriona White’s fatal overdose last year.
“What a terrible shame. It would be easy for me to get in a back room with this man’s lawyer and make this go away, but there are some moments in life when you have to stand up and defend your honor against the evil in this world,” Carrey, 54, said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.
“I will not tolerate this heartless attempt to exploit me or the woman I loved,” he continued. “Cat’s troubles were born long before I met her and sadly her tragic end was beyond anyone’s control.”
Carrey, who had split from White a week before her death, concluded, “I really hope that some day soon people will stop trying to profit from this and let her rest in peace.”
PEOPLE confirmed on Monday that White’s estranged husband, Mark Burton, filed a wrongful death suit against Carrey in Los Angeles County Superior Court. According to court documents, Burton, who was legally married to White at the time of her death, alleges Carrey used his “immense wealth and celebrity status” to illegally obtain the drugs that killed his wife.
White, who dated the actor off and on for three years, was found dead at a Los Angeles home in September 2015. In July, the 30-year-old’s suicide note was released in court documents.
In addition, a toxicology report confirmed her death was a suicide. White had a variety of prescription pills in her system at the time of her death, including propranolol (a beta blocker used to treat high blood pressure), zolpidem (a sleep aid sold as Ambien), and painkillers oxycodone and oxymorphone – none of which had been prescribed to her.
The filing claims Carrey had an “obsession with controlling and manipulating White” and “had the ability to monitor surveillance cameras on a home White often stayed at and was able, by design, to view the residence remotely to keep track of White’s comings and goings.”
Burton also accuses Carrey’s physician of misconduct, claiming in the filing that the two “were engaged in a conspiracy to wrongfully and illegally provide medications to Carrey under false names.”