John Cleese’s divorce from wife number three, Alyce Faye Eichelberger, has reportedly culminated in the actor and comedian being forced to hand over nearly £12.5 million of his fortune. The payout is expected to reduce the 69-year-old’s overall wealth to about £10 million and may mean that she is worth more than he is.

This is despite the fact Ms Eichelberger apparently bought no assets to the marriage (she lived in a council flat when they met), didn’t contribute significantly to the partnership in financial terms and had no children with Cleese.

Revelations about the financial settlement, which, it is understood, will be rubber-stamped imminently, have come from the comic’s friend Michael Winner.

The film director and restaurant critic said of Cleese: “He’s been deeply displeased by the tactics of Alyce and her lawyer. The result is extraordinary. Alyce lived in a council flat when they met. There are no dependent children. Yet she’s getting some £8 million in cash and assets, plus a further £612,000 a year for seven years. As he put it, ‘What I find so unfair is that if we both died today, her children would get much more than mine’.

“If ever there was a case for pre-nuptial agreements, this is it.”

Indeed so. Why, then, did Cleese not sign one before marrying Ms Eichelberger? For it is a classic scenario for a pre-nuptial agreement (PNA): he had already been through two divorces and parted with a significant amount of money as a result – second wife Barbara Trentham reportedly received £2.5 million after their marriage ended in 1990. The couple lived in the United States for most, if not all, of their married life and PNAs have held legal sway in America for many years. They married relatively late in life so there wasn’t an expectation of children, and the Fawlty Towers star came into the relationship with everything in terms of assets and Ms Eichelberger with nothing.

Had a PNA been in place, it is unlikely the third Mrs Cleese would have walked away from the marriage with anything like £12.5 million. She may have resisted drawing up a PNA – for just this reason – but Cleese will now be rueing the fact he didn’t insist on one.

However, there is some good news for the comedian: his ex-wife may be richer, now, than he is, but that may not be the case for long. Cleese still has great earning power, which means he will be able to make good the loss. And it seems he’s already working on how to do that. Media reports this week say he is living in the New Forest and working on a one-man show – My Alyce Faye Divorce Tour!