Jim Carrey's wild personality, kooky facial expressions, and outlandish sense of humor
have been making the world chuckle since the '80s, but his tragic real-life story is no
laughing matter.
Dropping out of school
Carrey was a big fan of The Carol Burnett Show as a kid.
In fact, at the age of 10, he wrote a heartfelt letter to Burnett in hopes that she would
give him the opportunity to display his comedic chops and show off his "150 voices" on her
show.
He waited for a reply and was finally greeted with a rejection letter from Burnett, who
told him that the show wasn't hiring children but encouraged Carrey to "stay in school"
and "study hard."
Sadly, Carrey wasn't able to heed her advice after his father lost his job as an accountant.
In order to help his family make ends meet, he dropped out of school on his 16th birthday.
But there was a bright side to this turn of events.
Carrey was determined not to be a loser, so he spent his time away from the classroom
working on his comedy act full time.
And boy, did it pay off.
Homeless teenage years
The Carrey family's financial hardships meant tough times were abundant.
But the future star was at least able to turn those difficult times into a source of laughter.
After his father lost his accounting job, the family became homeless and even had to
live in a van for a while.
Ultimately, Carrey was able to put the experience in perspective in an early stand-up routine.
"My father lost his job and I actually became homeless for quite some time.
Of course, I grew up in Canada, so I thought we'd just gone camping."
Thankfully, those days are now over.
Carrey has used his fortunes to give his lifestyle a complete 180, like the time he purchased
a beachside Malibu home that he later sold for a whopping $13.4 million.
Hard to date
Carrey has had a long list of leading women in and out of his life.
He married actress Melissa Womer in 1987, and they had a daughter, Jane, before they
went their separate ways and divorced in 1995.
He went on to marry his Dumb and Dumber co-star, Lauren Holly in 1996, but their marriage barely
lasted eight months before Holly filed for divorce in July 1997.
A string of rocky relationships followed, including a broken engagement to his Me, Myself
& Irene co-star Renée Zellweger.
From 2005 to 2010, Carrey was in a committed relationship with Jenny McCarthy.
After news broke that their romance was on the skids, those close to the couple spoke
out about the supposed truth behind their relationship.
A source told People Magazine that although Carrey always had a smile on his face while
hanging out with their mutual friends, the usually bubbly McCarthy "rarely smiled."
Another source close to the former couple labeled Carrey "a hard guy to date," noting,
"Jim can run hot and he can run cold.
He is someone who desperately needs to be with someone, then just as desperately needs
to be alone.
But at the same time, he can be a very loving, very compassionate guy."
A tragic death and legal battle
Another one of Carrey's relationships made even more tragic headlines.
He started dating makeup artist Cathriona White after they met on a film set in 2012.
But White tragically took her own life in September 2015 by overdosing on prescription
drugs.
Carrey was a pallbearer at her funeral.
The following year, White's estranged husband, Mark Burton, and her mother, Brigid Sweetman,
sued Carrey for wrongful death, claiming that he had infected White with three STDs and
supplied her with the painkillers that she used to kill herself.
Carrey fought back with a countersuit claiming that White attempted to extort him in 2013
by threatening to reveal her STD allegation.
He also claimed that the wrongful death lawsuit was just another way for her family to attempt
to exploit him.
The court battle and allegations got very nasty, though the whole thing was eventually
dismissed in January 2018.
Suffering from depression
The serious side of Carrey's personality isn't one the public gets to see often, and that
could be because of his struggle with depression.
In a 2017 interview with iNews, he revealed that it took him some time, but he was finally
able to get to a point where he was "sometimes happy."
After gradually ditching Prozac, abstaining from alcohol and drugs, and limiting his coffee
intake, Carrey found that his mental wellness improved.
To keep depression at bay, he looked toward the spiritual side of his life, which he discussed
in a 2004 interview on 60 Minutes.
"I'm a Buddhist, I'm a Muslim, I'm a Christian.
I'm whatever you want me to be.
It all comes down to the same thing."
Carrey also suffered from a bout of depression after he played the late comedian Andy Kaufman
in the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon.
For this performance, Carrey employed method acting, a technique in which actors tie the
emotions of their characters to their own sincere emotions.
It was a successful turn, even earning Carrey a Golden Globe.
But as he revealed in a 2018 interview with The Talks, the performance made him realize
the danger of losing himself in a role.
"This is what Andy felt all the time.
This what he faced all the time."
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