Since I last saw you I've had a hair transplant, says Cleese

With two divorces under his belt, a third going through the courts and alimony bills running at £1m a year, John Cleese might be forgiven for joining the ranks of grumpy old men. But the Monty Python star revealed yesterday that he had acquired another hallmark of alpha males entering their third age – an expensive hair transplant.

While others might prefer to keep the reinvigoration of a fading thatch a matter between family and friends, Cleese, 69, showed off his new coiffure during a television interview with Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. He joins the club of "out and proud" hair transplantees that includes Sir Elton John, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the magician Paul Daniels and the cricketers Graham Gooch and Shane Warne.

It is believed to be the first time that Cleese, who is in the process of divorcing his American third wife, the psychoanalyst Alyce Faye Eichelberger, has had a cosmetic procedure. He revealed his hair transplant as he and the chat-show hosts discussed the hip operation he had eight years ago.

"As we are talking operations, since I saw you last I've had a hair transplant," said Cleese. He explained that the procedure involved the removal of two strips of skin from the back of his head and the division of the samples into 800 separate inserts, which were then transplanted back into his scalp with 800 tiny incisions. Asked why he opted for a transplant, Cleese said: "Because I have got a very strange shaped skull, very pointy, and I don't like wearing wigs."

Treatments for male pattern baldness have come a long way since the father of medicine, Hippocrates, applied to his own balding pate a mixture of pigeon droppings, horseradish, cumin and beetroot. He noted that the concoction had little effect, saying castration had more noticeable results. Nowadays, biotechnologists are able to reproduce hair follicles in a test tube and inject millions of them back into the scalp to promote new hair growth.

The method chosen by Cleese – and known in the trade as "an Elton John" – involves removing a small area of scalp from the back of the head, where hair follicles tend to be the most developed, and reimplanting them into the areas affected by hair loss. The operation costs about £10,000.

The procedure comes at a time when Cleese, now living in Santa Barbara, California, professes to be happier he has ever been. Earlier this year, he was linked with a 34-year-old American marketing representative, Veronica Smiley, after they holidayed together, although he was forced to play down reports that they were dating. He also declared himself less than delighted that he still had to work to "feed the beast" – a reference to the £1m a year he is paying in alimony to Ms Eichelberger, his wife for 16 years. Cleese said the experience has had made him think again about the nature of marriage. He told a British newspaper last month: "I think it should be like dog licences. You should have to renew marriage licences every five years, unless you have children."

His interview with Madeley and Finnigan can be seen on Richard & Judy's New Position at 8pm tonight on the digital entertainment channel Watch.