Ex Python John Cleese must pay ex-wife £12m

Comedian John Cleese is not laughing after giving up £8m in cash and several of his homes to his ex-wife as part of their divorce settlement. He has also been ordered to pay Faye Eichelberger, an American psychotherapist, £600,000 a year for seven years.

However, the comic plans to take revenge on his ex by going on tour with a new one-man show that will spill the beans on their split.

The papers to finalise the financial settlement, that will leave the Monty Python actor less well off than his ex-wife, were lodged in the courts in California last week. Eichelberger, 64, used lawyer Fiona Shackleton, who acted for the Prince of Wales and Sir Paul McCartney in their divorces, to handle the British end of the case.

Cleese, whose two previous divorces were amicable, has followed the advice of fellow Python Eric Idle and has been able look on the bright side of life. He said of the split: "It's going to be very, very expensive, but it will be worth every penny." He also commented: "At least I will know in future if I go out with a lady they will not be after me for my money."

But his anger over the situation was also evident when he quipped: "I got off lightly. Think what I’d have had to pay Alyce if she had contributed anything to the relationship."

In her divorce testimony, Eichelberger revealed she had become used to "being entertained by royalty and dignitaries in castles" and wanted half the Fish Called Wanda and Fawlty Towers star's earnings since 1992, half his nine properties, and £900,000 a year to live on. In March a judge in America said her claim was "excessive" and reduced Cleese's payments to her from £106,000 a month to £57,000. But the final deal will still make Eichelberger a multi-millionaire.

Cleese claims that when he first met Eichelberger she was living in a third floor council flat in London with two sons from a previous marriage, but she will become richer than him as a result of the divorce. "What I find so unfair is that if we both died today, her children would get much more than mine," he says. He has also revealed that the divorce has left him "doing work that is of no interest to me and which is probably slightly spiritually depleting in order to feed the beast."

But the 70-year-old actor plans to have the last laugh and is plotting his revenge through comedy, and is holed up in the New Forest working on new material for a show entitled My Alyce Faye Divorce Tour. ·