Eric Idle has disclosed that he has not seen fellow Monty Python star John Cleese in ten years, as a long-running feud over the management and finances of the comedy group continues. The 82-year-old comedian made the revelation in response to a fan on X, formerly Twitter, who suggested Idle would be well-placed to know how Cleese was doing. Idle replied: “Actually, I’m not. I haven’t seen him for 10 years.”
The rift between Idle and Cleese, 86, has centred on the handling of the Monty Python brand. 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, daughter of fellow Python Terry Gilliam. Cleese has denied this, insisting Beach stepped down after a stroke and that Gilliam, who had been working under him, simply took over.
Idle has previously described the disagreement as being 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.” He also blamed the troupe’s finances for tensions, noting he had not expected income from Monty Python projects to “tail off so disastrously” later in life.
Cleese has publicly defended Holly Gilliam, calling her “very efficient, clear-minded, hard-working, and pleasant to have dealings with,” and added that fellow Pythons Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam shared that view. Monty Python, founded in 1969 by Cleese, Idle, Palin, Gilliam, Graham Chapman and Terry Jones, created the BBC series Monty Python’s Flying Circus and films including Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian. Chapman died in 1989 and Jones in 2020; the surviving members reunited for farewell shows in London in 2014.
