Cleese furious over wife's divorce demands

Veteran comedy actor John Cleese has told friends that he is "fuming" over divorce demands made by his estranged wife Alyce.

Cleese announced that he was splitting from American-born Alyce Faye Eichelberger, his third wife, in January this year.

According to the Daily Mail, Alyce is demanding half of Cleese's earnings since they married in 1992. Her divorce petition claims that she is entitled to half of her husband's £16 million worldwide property portfolio and needs £71,250 a month to live on.

"It is only recently that things have turned ugly. John has no doubt that Alyce's lawyer is stirring up the pot," a friend told the newspaper. "It is all so pointless because John wants everything to be resolved as painlessly as possible.

"He finds it embarrassing that he has been dragged into one of those horrible Hollywood divorces. He thinks the whole thing is very unBritish. He simply can't believe that Alyce is behaving like this. When he is not fuming over it, he actually finds it quite amusing because the whole thing is so surreal."