Eric Idle has revealed he has not seen fellow Monty Python star John Cleese in a decade, as a long-running feud between the comedy legends continues.
The rift between Idle, 82, and Cleese, 86, has played out publicly in recent years and centres largely on the management of the Monty Python brand and its finances.
Idle has repeatedly claimed that Cleese dismissed the troupe’s longtime manager Jim Beach — an old friend of Idle’s — and replaced him with Holly Gilliam, the daughter of fellow Python member Terry Gilliam. Cleese has strongly denied that version of events, insisting Beach stepped down after suffering a stroke and that Gilliam, who had been working under him, simply took over the role.
The dispute has led to increasingly public exchanges between the pair, with Cleese at one stage accusing Idle of “lying” about the circumstances of the management change.
Now Idle has revealed just how distant the relationship between the two has become.
Asked by a fan on X, formerly Twitter, for an update on Cleese, one user suggested Idle would be “better placed than most” to know how the Fawlty Towers star was doing.
Idle replied: “Actually, I’m not. I haven’t seen him for 10 years.”
The comedian has previously suggested that the disagreement is ultimately about business rather than comedy.
Speaking on the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast in 2024, he said: “We don’t disagree about comedy – this is only about money. This is only about business.
“There’s no right or wrong way to deal with business, and if somebody has one view of it and somebody has another, those can lead to very bad arguments.”
Idle has also previously blamed the troupe’s finances for tensions, saying he had not expected income from Monty Python projects to “tail off so disastrously” later in life.
Cleese, however, has publicly defended Holly Gilliam, describing her as “very efficient, clear-minded, hard-working, and pleasant to have dealings with”. He added that fellow Python members Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam shared that view.
Monty Python was founded in 1969 by Cleese, Idle, Palin, Gilliam, Graham Chapman and Terry Jones, and went on to become one of the most influential comedy troupes in history.
The group created the BBC series Monty Python’s Flying Circus and films including Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian.
Chapman died from tonsil cancer in 1989 aged 48, while Jones died in 2020 aged 77 after living with a rare form of dementia.
The surviving members reunited for a series of farewell stage shows in London in 2014. But in recent years contact between them has become less frequent, with Palin previously describing the reunion shows as “a very good farewell”.
