Well-known Scottish comedian and actor Billy Connolly has decided to turn his back on Los Angeles and his native country to live in Gozo, website Contactmusic

.com claims.

The Scottish funnyman decided to scale back and enjoy the simple life when his wife Pamela Anderson bought a yacht and set sail for the Maltese islands.

In comments to the website, Mr Connolly said: “Gozo’s a wee island off Malta and it’s kind of agricultural, it’s quiet, I sail my boat, play my banjo, read books, smoke cigars.”

He continued: “My wife bought a big yacht. I had three houses and she bought this (boat)... she went through a kind of mid-life, desperate cry for help thing and sailed off. I really couldn’t bear the weight of the whole exercise – the three houses and the big yacht, so I sold one of the houses.”

But Connolly insisted that he would always keep a home in Scotland – even though he can’t bear the brutal winters in his baronial house in the Grampians.

He concluded: “The winter’s, like, a year long... You know what Scotland needs? A bit more global warming. You should share the global warming around.”