It's not all laughs and funny faces for Jim Carrey when the cameras aren't rolling. Some
of his exes have revealed that behind the wacky characters lies a deep darkness.
“Somebody stop me!”
Jim Carrey met his first wife, Melissa Womer, at the Comedy Store,
where she was a waitress and he was a performer. The pair walked down the
aisle in 1987 and welcomed daughter Jane — Carrey's only child — that same year. Sadly,
they headed for divorce court eight years later. Soon after, Womer told Rolling Stone,
"Jim is an extremely depressive person. I know, because I would sit up counseling
him through it until four or five in the morning on many, many nights."
“I object your honor!”
“To yourself?”
“yeah.”
In the end, "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" proved to be their ultimate downfall.
Womer admitted to a lot of screaming throughout the late-night conversations
they had during the film's production. She also argued that being a leading
man in a major Hollywood movie completely changed her husband's belief in commitment:
"The day he first walked on that set as Mr. Carrey,
he decided he wanted to enjoy success from the perspective of a single man."
It's not clear exactly what the nature of Courteney Cox and Jim Carrey's relationship
was. But the fact that she completely dodged a question about a possible romance during an
appearance on "The Howard Stern Show" suggests they were more than just one-time colleagues.
In the interview, Cox, who was joined by her former "Friends" castmates Lisa Kudrow and
Jennifer Aniston, admitted to having a crush on her "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" co-star. But she
suddenly became all coy when asked whether she and Carrey ever became more than just friends, saying,
"I don't... I'm going to go the bathroom"
The actor, who played Melissa Robinson in the comedy that launched Carrey to worldwide fame,
did, however, have no qualms about singing his praises:
"He was so funny; it was just about cracking up all the time. I remember when we first rehearsed,
he was just playing it straighter. And then he turned it on when we
started filming and I thought, 'Oh my God, he's the funniest person.'"
Lauren Holly, who met Jim Carrey on the set of the 1994 comedy "Dumb and
Dumber" before marrying him two years later, has been one of his most vocal
exes. Luckily for the comedian, most of what she's said has been positive.
"So you're telling me there's a chance? YEAH" In 2019, Holly told Closer that despite filing for
divorce just nine months after tying the knot, she has maintained a good relationship with Carrey:
"I only have the best memories of working with him because we were
boyfriend and girlfriend. We just laughed and laughed — he's constant entertainment."
However, during an appearance on "George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight" six years earlier,
Holly admitted that the divorce was not easy on her and that the press
stories surrounding their split weren't exactly the whole truth:
"I always felt like everybody knew my personal business, not to mention the fact that I was
going through a heartbreak. So, I would go and get a coffee and I would swear the person giving
me coffee was like, 'Ooh so sorry, and you're a gold digger,' you know, or whatever it was."
"I would just feel, like, so terrible so that was hard."
British actor Charlotte Lewis is perhaps best known for playing young Tibetan princess
Kee Nang in the 1986 Eddie Murphy flick "The Golden Child." But she also became
a tabloid fixture back in the '90s thanks to her romances with several high-profile figures,
including Mick Jagger, Dodi Fayed, and Jim Carrey.
Lewis, who took a 16-year break from the industry before making her comeback in the
2019 neo-noir "Lost Angelas," reportedly began dating Carrey around the turn of
the century. This was also around the same time the funnyman was said to have courted
future "Mad Men" actor January Jones and his "The Majestic" co-star Laurie Holden.
But while Jones and Holden have remained silent about any dalliances with Carrey,
Lewis was happy to confirm that she did indeed briefly go out with the
comic. During a candid 1999 interview with News of the World, the Londoner remarked,
"He was kind, charismatic, funny and unbelievably gorgeous. But I wouldn't sleep with him."
"Love me, love me, love me, love me!"
Like many of Jim Carrey's exes, Renee Zellweger has remained fairly
tight-lipped about her time with the comic. However, in a 2003 chat with Cosmopolitan,
she did refute the rumors that they were ever engaged:
"The English papers wrote that I was proposed to in a West End restaurant with a ring,
and they included the size and cost of the ring. But it was all made up. [...] I'd only
been dating him for three months. As if I would consider marriage after only three months!"
Zellweger then got a little cryptic, revealing that she's still best friends
with one of her unnamed exes. Could this have been Carrey? Or could she
have been referring to the star when asked about her ultimate icks? Her answers:
"To be dismissive of my dog. If she has to be sent away from the table, well, then he can't
be across the table. [...] If he's disrespectful of the waiter or the busboy, because it clearly
means that his kindness is conditional and he divvies it up when it serves him to be nice."
"Well, good evening ladies and gentlemen,
my name is Jim Carrey and how are you this evening, alrighty then."
Jim Carrey spent the second half of the 2000s playing happy family with actor and former Playboy
favorite Jenny McCarthy. But two years after their split, McCarthy revealed that the funnyman had
completely abandoned her then-10-year-old autistic son Evan from her marriage to John Mallory Asher.
During an appearance on "The Howard Stern Show" in 2012,
McCarthy revealed that Evan still asked about Carrey on a weekly basis,
and despite numerous requests, the "Man on the Moon" star had failed to get back in touch:
"I tell [Evan] that someday you'll cross paths,
meet again. It's hard. He's been in therapy. It's a process, he's working on it."
A clearly emotional McCarthy also revealed that despite Carrey's lack of interest,
she still holds a torch for him:
"I think you can love people from a distance and respect him. But as a mother, you just hope
when you have a relationship with someone, it has nothing to do with the child when you break up."
“Here’s the thing: I’m never wrong.”
Two years after calling him out for ignoring her son, McCarthy came to the defense of her
ex-boyfriend when Shia LaBeouf attempted to shame him for his apparent lack of concern.
Responding to a tweet from LaBeouf that criticized
Carrey's behavior and dismissal of his ex's son, McCarthy argued that
the "Transformers" star was way out of line. While hosting "The View," she said,
"Jim and I have become friends now since our breakup. We dated for
five years and I got to know his daughter, Jane, who is a lovely,
lovely girl. It's completely uncalled for and wrong. Jim is a great father."
In 2015, Cathriona White, a make-up artist who'd been dating Jim Carrey on and off for three years,
took her own life via prescription drug overdose. The claims she made about the
Hollywood star in her suicide note changed the public's perception of him forever. White wrote,
"Before you, I might not have had very much but I had respect, I was a happy person. I loved life,
I was confident and I felt good in my skin and was proud of most decisions I made,
I met you, you introduced me to cocaine, prostitutes, mental abuse and disease."
The latter was referring to various STDs she
believed had been contracted during her time with Carrey.
White went on to add,
"I was promised Jekyll and instead I got Hyde. Because I love you I would have stuck
out Hyde all year and done everything he wanted to be with Jekyll for five of those
but you threw me away when you absorbed anything worthwhile that was left of me."
Both White's husband and mother filed wrongful death lawsuits against "The Truman Show" star,
both of which were dismissed in 2018.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please dial or text 988 to speak with
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also seek help by visiting 988lifeline.org