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John Cleese planning big life change at 85 amid ‘depressing’ realisation


The Monty Python star is currently house hunting in the West Country


ATLANTA, GEORGIA - AUGUST 31: John Cleese speaks onstage during "An Hour with John Cleese: There Are Those Who Call Him...John!" session during the 2024 Dragon Con at Atlanta Marriott Marquis on August 31, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.  (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)© Getty Images
Josh Osman
Josh OsmanJunior Lifestyle Writer
August 9, 2025
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Monty Python star John Cleese is looking to make a serious upheaval to his home life, with  his fourth wife, jewellery designer Jennifer Wade.

The 85-year-old has lived all over: he's had homes in Monaco and also in Nevis, in the Caribbean, but it seems that he's searching for a new forever home.

John Cleese speaking onstage during "An Hour with John Cleese: There Are Those Who Call Him...John!"© Getty
John Cleese is looking to make a major life change

In April, the comedian revealed that he had gifted his £1.5 million apartment in Chelsea to Jennifer, and the pair spend the majority of their time in London, but they're looking for a place to stay elsewhere.

John bought a flat in Bath's Royal Crescent back in 2016, but sold it again two years later after leaving the UK and settling in the Caribbean – but the West Country calls to him once more.

John Cleese is looking to move to the West Country

Speaking at Clifton College, as reported by the Daily Mail, the incredibly expensive private school in Bristol that he attended when he was younger, he revealed: "Unquestionably, my home is the West Country. My wife and I are thinking very seriously of buying in Bath."

The 85-year-old continued: "When I look back at my time in Weston-super-Mare… There were a lot of very nice people having peaceful, friendly lives and being nice to each other and behaving really pretty well. And how little of that there is around these days."

John Cleese with Helen Lederer, who is playing Mrs Richards in Fawlty Towers: The Play© Getty
John Cleese is best known for his role in Fawlty Towers

He went on to criticise what he believes to be a new generational view of wealth and success in the UK, adding: "It's an idea which has come from America, which is that if you are not either rich or powerful – or both – then somehow your life has been a failure. I think that is a terrible idea."

John Cleese's difficult time amid friends' deaths

The actor recently confessed to having a difficult time, reflecting on the deaths of his co-stars and friends in the industry.

Speaking to The Times back in April, he said: "All these lovely people. Geoffrey Palmer, Joan Sanderson, Ken Campbell, Bernard Cribbins, all these wonderful people that I'd really enjoyed working with, all dead."

Monty Python including (left to right) Michael Palin, Terry Jones (1942-2020), Eric Idle, Graham Chapman (1941 - 1989), Terry Gilliam, and John Cleese, clown about prior to their filmed live show at the Hollywood Bowl© Getty
John Cleese was a part of comedy troupe Monty Python

John added: "Every time somebody came up and I thought, are they still alive? Dead! And I started getting a bit depressed and it was just loss, really, a realisation of the loss.

"I ought to warn your readers that when you get to your eighties, you're not prepared. I think Philip Roth once finished one novel about old age by saying it's a massacre."

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