25/08/2009 JOHN CLEESE MAY FEEL THAT HIS DIVORCE IS FAWLTY, BUT CURTIS PARKINSON SAY THAT THIS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED WITH A PRE-NUPTIAL AGREEMENT
Curtis Parkinson Solicitors is a law firm specialising in private and commercial work, which in addition to offering a high level of expertise in family mediation and family law, offer a full range of legal services including buying and selling property, employment, court disputes, wills, probate, lasting powers of attorney, tax planning, debt recovery, personal injury and equine law.
Following his recent divorce settlement, John Cleese, comedy actor and star of "Fawlty Towers" and "A Fish called Wanda", is giving his former wife £8 million in cash and assets which include an apartment in New York, a £2 million mews house in fashionable Holland Park in west London, and half a beach house in Santa Barbara in California which is yet to be sold.
Faye Eichelberger, an American psychotherapist, will also receive £600,000 a year for seven years. The papers to finalise the financial settlement were recently lodged in the courts in California.
John Cleese, 70, who is in the New Forest writing a barbed one man show to be called Alimony Tour Year One, has revealed his anger at the size of the divorce settlement which will make his former wife, who he was married to for 16 years, richer than him. He said: “What I find so unfair is that if we both died today, her children would get much more than mine.” He added: “At least I will know in future if a I go out with a lady they will not be after me for my money.” When he met her in 1990 she was living in a third floor council flat in London with two sons from a previous marriage.
In her divorce testimony, she claimed John Cleese was a “world-renowned celebrity” and she was used to “being entertained by royalty and dignitaries in castles”. She claimed half the Monty Python star’s earnings since their 1992 wedding, half his nine properties, and £900,000 a year to live on.
Michael Winner, the former film director and acerbic restaurant critic who has been Cleese’s closest friend for 30 years, said: “It is an extraordinary world which means John is left with much less than his former wife even though he is the star who did all the work. The settlement defies human belief. John is extremely cross about it and I don’t blame him. The settlement comes after two years of harrowing legal argument.”
Chris Saunders, Family Mediation Partner at Curtis Parkinson Solicitors, comments: "A simple Pre-nuptial Agreement could have prevented all this hardship and trauma for John Cleese. It would have avoided unnecessary expensive and protracted litigation, by ring fencing assets brought into the marriage, although future assets may be viewed differently."
She goes on to say: "As experienced Family Mediators, Curtis Parkinson will see you as a couple to discuss and assist in facilitating an agreement about the terms of your Pre-nuptial Agreement. You will be asked to sign an agreement to mediate and provide a full and frank disclosure of your financial position. The discussions will explore how you both anticipate future assets will be treated, especially in the advent of having children. In this respect, our mediators can help a couple manage their expectations of how married life is going to be."
Chris Saunders adds: "Our private client department can advise you about inheritance tax planning and the need for wills and lasting powers of attorney."
Curtis Parkinson Solicitors is a law firm specialising in private and commercial work including buying and selling property, family matters, employment, court disputes, wills, probate, tax planning, debt recovery, personal injury and equine law. The firm has three offices, conveniently located in Nottingham City Centre, Clifton and Bulwell
For more information contact: Christine Saunders or Mary Champion on 0115 9317000