John Cleese still finds humour despite paying millions in alimony

18-Aug-2009 • Actor News

John Cleese won't be at a loss for fodder when he hosts this year's first Just for Laughs anglo gala on Wednesday in Montreal. Three divorces and millions of dollars in alimony payments have provided him with more than enough material - reports the Vancouver Sun.

Cleese, the former `Q` actor, Monty Python trouper and face behind the fab Fawlty Towers sitcom, is in the final throes of his third divorce, from American psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger. A mighty pricey divorce at that, but he seems remarkably unperturbed. Downright jolly, in fact.

"Despite the fact I have to pay my soon-to-be ex a million dollars a year in alimony, in addition to a $13-million settlement, my expenses have actually come down," says a cheery Cleese in a phone interview from his country retreat outside London.

Do explain, sir, to the math-bamboozled out there.

"Alyce and I had formed a most extravagant couple," he elaborates. "We acquired a very, very lavish lifestyle. Now I can revert to a much simpler one."

Ah. Evidently, residuals from the Python TV series and four films -- Fawlty Towers, A Fish Called Wanda, a couple of James Bond and Harry Potter flicks -- can both cover alimony costs and ease the pain of separation.

"What's great is that I had been spending a lot more time in America, because much of the best-paid work is there. But if I don't have to earn so much money, I can spend much more time in England -- just not in winter."

Patriotism will carry a man only so far. Given a choice between a damp, coldish London winter or a few months on a sun-drenched beach in the Caribbean, it seems that Cleese can find enough cash in the larder to opt for the latter.

But has he at least learned from the folly of his ways?

"No, I doubt it. I should go on finding blondes endlessly attractive till the end of my days. I have had an extraordinary string of gorgeous girlfriends. What else would you expect me to do at 69?"

Evidently, entering a monastery is out of the question. Besides, he plans to celebrate his 69.9th birthday in October -- he refuses to acknowledge his 70th.

Cleese insists he harbours no bad feelings toward his first two ex-wives.

Connie Booth, his first and the mother of their daughter Cynthia, co-created, co-wrote and starred with him in Fawlty Towers.

His second, U.S. actress Barbara Trentham, is the mother of their daughter Camilla, with whom Cleese is collaborating on a musical treatment of A Fish Called Wanda.