The husband of Jim Carrey's former girlfriend is suing the actor, accusing him of illegally supplying Cathriona White with prescription drugs that resulted in her death.

The wrongful death lawsuit filed by White's husband, Mark Burton, in Los Angeles Superior Court, accused Carrey, 54, of "using his immense wealth and celebrity status to illegally obtain and distribute highly addictive and, in this case deadly, controlled substances."

White, 30, an Irish-born makeup artist, was found dead in her Los Angeles apartment in September 2015, in an apparent suicide.

Celebrity news website TMZ had said at the time that Carrey and White had an on-and-off romance and had broken up the week before White's death. Burton's lawsuit said White was "engaged in a sexual relationship with Carrey" at the time of her death.

Representatives for Carrey did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Carrey had previously called White "my sweet Cathriona" in a statement following her death, adding "She was a truly kind and delicate Irish flower, too sensitive for this soil."

In his lawsuit, Burton alleged that Carrey obtained the prescription drugs Percocet, Ambien and Propranolol under the name of "Arthur King" and gave them to White even though he knew she was "prone to depression" and "had previously attempted to take her own life."

Burton, who is seeking a jury trial, also said Carrey had made "an effort to cover-up his conduct and complicity in her death" by saying White may have taken the drugs from him without his knowledge.

He added that the actor never made good on his offer to pay for White's funeral expenses, despite "considerable efforts to publicise his supposed generosity as it related to the death of White."

Carrey, slapstick star of comedy movies including Dumb and Dumber, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Bruce Almighty, ended a five-year relationship with actress Jenny McCarthy in 2010. He has two previous marriages that ended in divorce.