John Cleese admits to spending R400K a year on stem cell therapy

John Cleese has revealed he is forking out up to £17,000 a year to pay for stem cell therapy to combat the side-effects of ageing. The 84 year old Fawlty Towers star said admitted the fee was hefty was claimed it’s ‘worth it if you’re buying yourself a few extra years’.

Cleese, who has been having the treatment for more than 20 years, is ensuring he doesn’t ‘look bad’ for his age by getting the ‘highest quality’ cells from Switzerland. He told Saga magazine: ‘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.’
He admitted he was paying around £17,000 every 12-18 months, adding: ‘But if you’re buying yourself a few extra years, I think it’s worth it.

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

Cleese also credited his fourth wife, Jennifer Wade – who is more than 30 years his junior – for the spring in his step, but admitted it was ‘sad’ he would die ‘some time’ before her.

He added: ‘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 some time 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.’

Cleese recently claimed he still communicates with his Monty Python co-star Graham Chapman – 35 years after his death. Chapman played the lead role in both the Holy Grail and Life of Brian films. He died from tonsil cancer in 1989.