Entertainment
John Cleese, 84, spending £17,000 a year to stay young-Asyia Iftikhar-Entertainment – Metro
The Monty Python legend shared his pricey anti-ageing secret.
John Cleese reveals surprising stem cell expense (Picture: ITV/Emily Manley)
Monty Python star John Cleese admitted he is cashing out £17,000 a year for stem cell therapy in a bid for eternal youth.
The British comedy veteran may be 84 going on 85 but if his bank account expenses are anything to go by, he’s feeling as fresh as a spring chicken.
The booked and busy actor shared why he doesn’t ‘look bad for 84’ in a new interview. He revealed he has been having stem cell therapy every 12-18 months for the past 20 years.
But the real catch comes with the eye-watering price tag attached to the anti-ageing process, coming in at a whopping £17,000. That means Cleese has spent in the ballpark of £250,000 since he started the treatment.
‘These cells travel around the body and when they discover a place that needs repair, they’ll then change into the cells that you want for that repair, so they might become cartilage cells or liver cells,’ he explained to Saga Magazine about the process.
‘So I think that’s why I don’t look bad for 84.’
Cleese sources the ‘high quality’ stem cells from Switzerland (Picture: Getty)
John as Basil Fawlty in 1970s (Picture: BBC)
Cleese shared he only uses the ‘highest quality stem cells’ sourced from a place in Montreux, Switzerland called La Prairie.
‘If you’re buying yourself a few extra years, I think it’s worth it,’ he added.
He also praised his jewellery designer wife Jennifer Wade, 52, for keeping him young.
‘I mean, it is sad to think I shall die some time before she will, but I’m in pretty good health,’ Cleese said.
John in a Monty Python sketch early in his career (Picture: Getty)
‘I’m not fit, but the way I put it is that the doctors don’t yet know what I’m going to die of.’
The news comes as a surprise since, elsewhere in the interview, the Fawlty Towers actor confessed he was ‘surprisingly poor’ since his 2008 divorce from third wife Alyce Faye. The expensive split resulted in Cleese offering a $20million (£16million) payout.
Cleese had a costly divorce from Alice Faye Eichelberger (Picture: Barry King/WireImage)
What is stem cell therapy?
There are multiple forms of stem cell treatment. Under the NHS, stem cell transplants are traditionally used to treat conditions affecting the blood cells, such as leukaemia and lymphoma.
Anti-ageing stem cell treatment is regarded as a regenerative medicinal practice but there is still little evidence-based research to prove its effects, according to a report in The Telegraph.
Private clinics have cropped up across the globe to provide stem cell therapyfor the wealthy but few have been officially approved by government authorities.
According to Cleese, the divorce forced him to downsize from a mortgage-free pad in Holland Park to a full mortgage flat on Sloane Square. This led to The Alimony Tour to replenish funds.
‘How they figured out she was worth $20m, I have no idea,’ he said, slamming the ‘absurd’ amount of money.
‘I’m surprisingly poor, never thought it was necessary to own a great deal,’ Cleese added. ‘The most important thing is to have enough money to have some really good food, buy clothes twice a year and have nice holidays,’ he added.
And now we can add stem cell therapy to the list.
Cleese rose to fame with his British comedy troupe Monty Python formed in 1969 alongside Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. He is also well-known for his portrayal of Nearly Headless Nick in the Harry Potter series.
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