Jim Carrey was shockingly once told he had '10 minutes to live'

Jim Carrey was once given the terrifying news that he had just ‘10 minutes to live’ - not what anyone wants to hear, really, is it?

The Ace Ventura star appeared on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon where he was promoting his autobiographical novel Memoirs and Misinformation, when he shared the shocking story.

The 62-year-old Canadian actor was questioned about the cover of his book, which is an image of his face.

Asked about what the cover art meant, he admitted that the snap was actually taken just moments after he was given the rather terrifying news that he had mere minutes left to live.

Opening up about the incident, Carrey said he was writing on the book on an island in Hawaii when his assistant called him in tears to tell him they had 'ten minutes left' and the 'missiles are coming'.

He said: "The cover is actually my face after being told I have 10 minutes to live. It was completely real to us."

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

Understandably quite frantic at this point, Carrey initially began to think up ways to get off the island as quickly as possible before eventually coming to terms with his fate and started to say his goodbyes to his nearest and dearest.

He went on: "At that point I started going, 'OK what can I do with this last moment of time'. I just decided to go through a list of gratitudes and honest to God I just could not stop thinking of wonderful things that have happened to me and blessings I've had.

"It was lovely. And I got to a point of grace at about two minutes to spare when I found out it wasn't actually happening.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

"All I was planning to do was close my eyes and be thankful because it's been a good ride."

Obviously, Carrey didn’t die as it transpired that the whole thing was a false alarm and he was never in any real danger. Phew.

The alert, which was was sent in error on 13 January 2018, told residents to take shelter from an incoming missile. The message warned: "This is not a drill."

Authorities later said there had been a miscommunication during an exercise at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

Joking about what he did after finding out it was a mistake, Carrey said: "I got p***ed off and heads rolled."