“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.”
