An affair to remember. Jim Carrey still looks back at his relationship with Renée Zellweger fondly, nearly two decades after their split.
The Canadian actor, 58, gushed over his time with the Judy star, 51, while discussing his upcoming satirical biography, Memoirs and Misinformation, on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show on Tuesday, July 14. The former costars began dating after working together on 2000’s Me, Myself and Irene, and Carrey describes his former flame as the “great love of my life,” despite having been married twice before their romance started.
“She was special to me, very special. I think she’s lovely,” the Mask star explained. “I don’t regret — I don’t have those things. But I do appreciate the people that have come through my life for the good that they gave me … but I don’t pine for anybody, it’s not that kind of situation. It’s just my way of saying, ‘There was a very important thing there,’ and to recognize that.”
Carrey and the Oscar winner were briefly engaged from 1999 before ultimately calling it quits at the end of 2000. The Dumb and Dumber actor was previously married to Melissa Womer, with whom he shares daughter Jane, from 1987 to 1995, and to Lauren Holly from 1996 to 1997. Zellweger, for her part, tied the knot with country star Kenny Chesney in May 2005 and obtained an annulment four months later.
The unexpected couple caused a media frenzy when they went public with their romance ahead of the release of their now-iconic comedy film. While Carrey told Entertainment Weekly that he felt an immediate “chemical” connection with Zellweger, the Texas native said she didn’t feel a spark until the movie had already wrapped.
“It was a very unexpected, wonderful thing,” she told the publication in June 2000. “It was just a really natural thing to want to be around each other. And we didn’t see each other for a few months after we finished the picture — or really speak even — and I just noticed his absence significantly. It just felt like, ‘Wow, I really miss him.'”
Since splitting from the Bridget Jones’ Diary actress, Carrey moved on with Jenny McCarthy, whom he dated from 2005 to 2010. He later dated Cathriona White in 2012, who died by suicide in 2015. Us Weekly confirmed in January 2019 that the Yes Man actor was dating actress Ginger Gonzaga, but the pair called off their relationship after less than a year together.
