The £25m pop payout - Phil Collins in a mega-divorce (again)



Having already paid out an estimated £17million to one former wife, you could say Phil Collins should have seen his latest divorce settlement, er, coming in the air.

The 57-year-old singer and drummer has been forced to hand over an astonishing £25million to his third wife in what is believed to be the largest divorce payment by a British show business star.

The generous payout to Swiss-born Orianne Cevey, 35, follows seven years of marriage.

Phil Collins has been forced to fork out £25m to his third wife Orianne Cevey in the largest ever divorce settlement by a British showbusiness star

The couple, who were together for 12 years in total, have two children, Nicolas, eight, and Matthew, four.



It means that, after taking into account the millions he paid to second wife Jill Tavelman - whom he famously dumped by fax - he has now paid out more than £42million to his ex partners.



That equates to almost a third of his £140million fortune.

The settlement only came to light following the release of accounts for Collins's personal management company, Philip Collins Ltd.

It is greater than the £24.3million Paul McCartney recently handed over to Heather Mills.



However it is dwarfed by Britain's biggest ever divorce payout - the £48million handed over by stockbroker John Chapman to his wife Beverley.

Collins met Miss Cevey on tour in 1994 when she was just 22 and was working as a translator.



Collins, then 43, was still married to his second wife at the time.

The couple set up home in Geneva and were together for five years before their lavish three- day wedding costing £300,000 which hosted guests including Elton John and Eric Clapton.



They bought racing driver Jackie Stewart's old house in Bugnins, near Geneva, for an estimated £20million before announcing their split in 2006.

Miss Cevey has remained in the mansion while Mr Collins moved into another home nearby to be close to his sons.

He now divides his time between Switzerland, New York and a home in Norfolk.

Collins was the drummer in Genesis until he stepped up to replace original singer Peter Gabriel.



He has also has a successful solo career.



Orianne has recently set up a luxury jewellery business called The Right Label.

Collins has two children with his first wife actress Andrea Bertorelli, Joely, 33, and Simon, 28.



That relationship ended when she ran off with their decorator.



Collins famously appeared on Top Of The Pops singing his 1981 solo hit In The Air Tonight with a pot of paint and paintbrush perched on his piano as a bitter coded message to his wife.

It is not known how much his divorce settlement was that time but is not thought to match the huge sums he has paid out since.

Collins, who also has a daughter, Lily, with second wife Jill, recently suffered hearing loss due to an ear infection.



Earlier this year he announced he was giving up touring for good.

A person who returned the Daily Mail's call to the office of Tony Smith, Collins' agent, said: 'I am not going to comment. It's not worthy of a comment. Their separation is an old story.'