Why is John Cleese 'forced' to work at 83? Actor says he's still paying off $20M divorce settlement to ex Alice Eichelberger
SHUGART, SINGAPORE: John Cleese, the legendary comedian, and actor, has revealed that he is still paying off his third wife, Alyce Faye Eichelberger, who divorced him 15 years ago and took a $20 million (£15.5 million) settlement from him.
The 83-year-old star of 'Monty Python' and 'Fawlty Towers' opened his stand-up show in Singapore with a rant about his ex-wife, whom he called a ‘morning stroll’ and showed her picture on a giant screen. He said, "I know what you’re thinking: What is an elderly English comedian doing here in Singapore when he should be back in his old oxygen tent in London, resting."
Why John Cleese is 'forced' to work?
He continued, "Well, I’ll tell you the reason. I’ll show it to you.’‘This is my ex-wife on her regular morning stroll, going to collect her alimony. Do you know I had to pay her $20 million? Can you believe that? Twenty! No children. Twenty million. The awful thing about that is that you give them ten, then you’ve still got another ten to go," Daily Mail reported him as saying. "Look at it like this. If only she’d been satisfied with a mere $15 million, I’d be going to bed in half an hour. Instead, I am forced to go on being a huge international megastar, a comedy icon, a national institution, a living legend."
'Tiny wizened little dwarf'
Cleese also joked that he wanted to stab media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whom he despises for his influence on the British press. He said he saw the "tiny wizened little dwarf" at a hotel restaurant in Mustique, where he married his fourth wife, Jennifer Wade, in 2012. He said, "I said to myself, “all I have to do is get there. I have to run over there about eight paces and I’ll be in the history books forever as a very fine person. But then I thought to myself, “well, I’d be in prison and I’d be away from the cats. And my wife and daughters”.’ Cleese has been married four times and has three daughters from his previous marriages. He married Eichelberger, a psychotherapist and author, in 1992 and they divorced in 2008.
He has been touring the world with his one-man show since 2011 when he launched his ‘Alimony tour’ to fund his annual payments to his former wife. He also reunited with his Monty Python colleagues in 2014 for a series of shows at London’s O2 Arena. As per the publication, he is currently working on a reboot of 'Fawlty Towers' with filmmaker Rob Reiner. He and his daughter Camilla, 39, will write and star in the revival, which will feature Camilla as Basil Fawlty’s ‘secret daughter’. Cleese had previously indicated that his final payment to Eichelberger will be in 2015, telling a magazine in that year. "For the past seven years, I’ve been earning to pay off the alimony. But now I’m free to do things that interest me."
