Third divorce will be worth every penny, says Cleese
Ordered to pay wife £75,000 a month
Published:
BRITISH comedy star John Cleese said his third divorce “will be worth every penny” after he was ordered to pay his estranged wife £75,000 a month in temporary maintenance.
The Monty Python star separated from his psychotherapist wife, Alyce Faye Eichelberger, four months ago after 15 years of marriage.
A judge in California’s Santa Barbara Superior Court ordered him to pay £75,000 in a temporary arrangement until their divorce settlement is complete. The next hearing will be held on June 13.
Speaking outside court yesterday, Mr Cleese said: “It’s going to be very, very expensive – but it will be worth every penny.”
The 68-year-old, who was brought into court in a wheelchair after undergoing a knee operation on Monday, joked he had sent his wife’s divorce claims to his former Monty Python co-stars and suggested they could find enough humour in them for a reality TV programme.
Jacqueline Misho, for Ms Eichelberger, 63, told the court her client had “nothing, zero, because Mr Cleese has not seen fit to pay any support up to this point”.
Mr Cleese, who was wearing what appeared to be large brown slippers with his grey pinstripe suit, said: “When Ms Misho said my wife has absolutely no money, it puzzled me how she could be staying at the Carlyle Hotel (in New York) in a room that costs $1,185 (£590) a night.”
He added that he has been forced to sell his £8.25million Santa Barbara ranch because of the divorce.
