John Cleese spends £17,000 a year to fight ageing

Fawlty Towers star gets replacement cells from a Swiss clinic

comedy John Cleese has revealed he spends up to £17,000 a year on stem cell therapy to try to fight ageing.

The comic said the fee was ‘worth it if you’re buying yourself a few extra years’ and said the treatment was why he ‘doesn’t look bad for 84’.

Cleese told Saga Magazine that he has been using the treatment for more than 20 years, receiving the ‘highest quality' cells from Switzerland

Research on whether stems cells can combat ageing is still under way, although several studies have suggested that extracting and reinfecting cells can have rejuvenating effects on tissues and organ repair.

Cleese said: ‘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 repair, so they might become cartilage cells or liver cells. So I think that’s why I don’t look bad for 84.

‘You must get the highest quality stem cells — the ones I have are from a place in Montreux, Switzerland, called La Prairie.’

He pays the £17,000 every 12 to 18 months for a four-day stay at the clinic, which says: ‘Turn back the clock by a decade or more – restore youthful beauty and looks with this trailblazing rejuvenation treatment.’

Overlooking Lake Geneva, the clinic was established in 1931 and has treated the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Carla Bruni and Pablo Picasso.

Cleese also said his fourth wife, Jennifer Wade — more than 30 years his junior – as keeping him young.

Speaking of the age gap, he said: ‘A lot of people comment and then the moment they actually see us together for two minutes they say "Oh, I get it" and it never arises again. What I love is that she’s 30 years younger than I am, but she keeps me young.

‘I mean, it is sad to think I shall die sometime before she will, but I’m in pretty good health. I’m not fit, but the way I put it is the doctors don’t yet know what I’m going to die of.’

Despite such luxuries as stem cell treatment, Cleese told the magazine he is ‘surprisingly poor’ after having to pay his ex-wife Alyce Faye Eichelberger £16million in a divorce settlement when they split in 2008 after 16 years.

The comic was speaking to promote the Fawlty Towers stage show, opening in London’s West End next month.

Last week, it was reported that his Channel 4 show about cancel culture had been cancelled.

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Published: 24 Apr 2024