Eric Idle and John Cleese co-starred in one of the most successful comedy troupes of all time, but the laughs have long been over for the pair, who have allegedly not seen each other in a decade.
In the past five years, Idle, 82, and Cleese, 86, have been engaged in a public feud, with the former declaring their friendship “over” in 2024 due to a change in Monty Python’s management, and tensions are so frayed that the pair haven’t encountered one another since 2016.
On Tuesday (10 March), Idle was asked for an update on Cleese, with one X/Twitter user writing: “I ask you because you’re better placed than most to find out.” Idle replied: “Actually, I’m not. I haven’t seen him for 10 years.”
Idle previously claimed that Cleese fired the comedy troupe’s former manager, his old friend Jim Beach, and hired Terry Gilliam’s daughter Holly instead. However, Cleese called this narrative “an invention”.
Speaking on podcast Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend in 2024, Idle said of Cleese: “We don’t disagree about comedy – this is only about money. This is only about business. I mean, a fool and his money are easily parted – six of us, much more quickly.
“There’s no right or wrong way to deal with business, and if somebody has one view of it, and somebody doesn’t, and somebody has another, those can lead to very bad arguments.”
He previously attributed their hostilities to the fact that they rarely see each other, stating: “Unfortunately, we don’t see each other enough. If you don’t sit across the table and know that person and what decade they’re in, I think that there’s a lot of room for disagreement.”
Fawlty Towers star Cleese has endorsed Holly’s management, calling her “very efficient, clear-minded, hard-working, and pleasant to have dealings with”.
He said in a statement: “Michael Palin has asked me to make it clear that he shares this opinion. Terry Gilliam is also in agreement with this.”
When asked about his views on Idle, Cleese once wrote on X/Twitter: “We always loathed and despised each other, but it’s only recently that the truth has begun to emerge.” He later clarified in a follow-up post that he meant his remark as a joke.
In May 2024, Monty Python stars Cleese, Palin and Gilliam reunited to celebrate Palin’s 81st birthday, all without Idle there.
The comedy troupe was co-founded in 1969 by Idle and Cleese alongside Gilliam, Graham Chapman and Terry Jones.
They did a series of reunion shows back in 2014, but without Chapman, who died of tonsil cancer in 1989, aged 48. Jones died in 2020, aged 77, from a rare form of dementia.
In 2025, Palin said that contact among the surviving members is rarer than usual.
“I don’t think we keep in touch with each other as much now,” he told Saga Magazine, calling their reunion shows “a very good farewell”.
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