John Cleese took LSD at 65 to see ‘what it was all about’

Cleese told the Times’ Weekend magazine: “I just wanted to know what it was all about.“ Photo / JWP

John Cleese, the now-85-year-old comedy legend, was “surprisingly ignorant” and was never “interested” in drugs as a younger man.

But in 2005, he decided to try the potent hallucinogen LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), which “can alter a person’s perception of reality and vividly distort the senses”.

He took the drug under supervision, and was left in amazement at the effects.

He told the Times’ Weekend magazine: “I just wanted to know what it was all about“.

“The man was one of the world experts on it, so I felt perfectly safe.

“I got scared for about 10 minutes in the middle, and he and his wife saw me through that.

“But it was extraordinary to realise how fertile the human mind is.”

The Fawlty Towers legend has never been much of a drinker, either, preferring to remain in control.

“I never really wanted to. It wasn’t quite losing control … I didn’t really want to lose my grasp of reality.”

Cleese famously had to pay a £15 million ($33m) divorce settlement to third wife Alyce Eichelberger in 2008 and the Monty Python star — who was previously married to Connie Booth and Barbara Trentham — now no longer owns any property, having transferred ownership of his apartment in Chelsea, London, to his fourth wife, current spouse Jennifer Wade.

“The third wife got two properties, one was in London and one was in New York, and we had to sell the other three. I’ve actually given the flat behind Peter Jones to Jennifer, so I don’t have a house, I don’t have a car.”

“I [did it] to make her feel secure. I think the greatest, saddest thing about our world is how many women feel unsafe … that’s not a good society.

“I mean, in general, emotionally, they don’t feel very secure. And I think if they have a property, they know that I can’t kick her out … it’s taken anxiety away from her that I think she wasn’t totally aware of.”