British Monty Python actor John Cleese will lose up to £12.5m in a divorce settlement with his third wife under Californian law, which favours the wife.

Cleese' third wife Alyce Faye Eichelberger, will be paid £8m plus £612,000 annually for the next seven years. It will leave Cleese poorer than Eichelberger, 64, a psychotherapist whom he married in 1992, according to adviser Punter Southall Financial Management.