Real-Life Celebrity Breakup: Jim Carrey and Lauren Holly

Jim Carrey and Lauren Holly. Co-stars in 1994, husband and wife in 1996, and divorced by summer 1997 – talk about a whirlwind romance.

How Jim Carrey and Lauren Holly Met

By the time, Holly agreed to a screen test for the comedy film Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, its leading man – Jim Carrey – felt that he already knew the flame-haired actress without having ever actually met her.

For years, he had watched her playing Julie Chandler on the ABC daytime drama All My Children so he was certainly aware of her prowess as an actress – and of her great beauty.

The test went exceedingly well, but Holly opted to turn down the offer extended to her by studio executives. She had already played opposite one high-strung comedian – Andrew Dice Clay in the Adventures of Ford Fairlane – and had no desire to repeat the experience.

However, she was eventually persuaded to appear in Peter Farrelly’s screwball farce, Dumb and Dumber, and in no time flat, she was romantically linked to one of her co-stars: Jim Carrey!

Getting Her Picture In The Paper – And A Reputation
Carrey and Holly’s debut as a couple coincided with the emergence of “paparazzi culture” and the rise of glossy gossip magazines. As a result, the pair were frequently at the mercy of the shameless shutterbugs and scathing editorial write-ups.

According to Holly, “They’re always writing about us as ‘on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again’ – like we’re this flaky Hollywood couple that just breaks up and gets back together all the time.”

One of the biggest misconceptions about her nascent romance that Holly wanted cleared up right away was her status as a “homewrecker.” Admittedly, Carrey was still married to Melissia Womer, but “they were completely apart when Jim and I met.”

Making It Official
With the feature wrapped, Carrey and Holly continued to see one another but both parties were cautious about the relationship and its future potential. Per Holly, “..we were both like, ‘Wait a second. Is it real?’ We met on a movie…”

But the romance was real, very real in Carrey’s eyes. When the duo won Best Kiss at the MTV Movie Awards he called his partner the sweetest girl in town and swore that he’d slay a dragon for her. He also tracked Holly down on on the set of her film, A Smile Like Yours, and popped the question with a “sparkly ring.”

The wedding was held atop a mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean on September 23, 1996. Photographers were not invited, though one managed to stalk the couple to the venue and videotape it from afar.

Jim Carrey and Lauren Holly: Divorce

Though the marriage was for all intents and purposes a happy one, the newly-minted Mr. and Mrs. were still constantly hounded by the press. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Holly remembered a time when she and Carrey “realized that there were some paparazzi who were living in our yard, underneath the tennis court, in order to get pictures of us inside the house.”

Still, they persevered…for a few more weeks. On Tuesday, July 29, 1997, Holly filed for divorce. Irreconcilable differences were cited. The marriage had lasted for nine months and two days – according to a separation date of June 25.

Rumors immediately swirled as to the reason behind the split. Some argued Carrey and his temper was to blame, others said it was a result of career competition, and still more claimed that Holly had been stepping out with Edward Burns, a fellow actor she met while filming No Looking Back — but the A-List couple was already over by that point.

Reflections
Post-divorce, Holly has had nothing but praise for Carrey. In an interview with Closer, she said, “I’m still in touch with Jim. 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.”