Sheffield native Monty Python star Sir Michael Palin has opened up about the death of his wife in 2023 and revealed that he has made arrangements for the end of his own life in a new interview with the On the Marie Curie Couch podcast.
Reflecting on his life and love with late wife Helen, the comic turned international travelogger said: “Helen and I met on holiday in 1959. I was about 16 at the time. It was a holiday romance that built up to a long marriage. There was always a feeling that we were a unit – I hadn’t really realised that until after she’d died.
“That was a difficult thing: there was half of your life gone. I still say, ‘We’ve got in our garden…’, ‘We have two grandchildren…’ as though she’s still here. I still use the ‘we’. I find it almost impossible to say, ‘I am…'”
He added: “The worst part of my grief, really, was knowing that Helen wouldn’t come back. I don’t know if it’s a common thing, but you kind of think, “Well, I haven’t seen her for a bit, but she’ll probably be back, because the house is the same, where she sits is the same, I’m making the same sort of food. She must walk in.” It’s probably ridiculous but those were the moments when I really felt the deepest grief, knowing that it would be forever.”
Palin explained that his wife had been suffering for years following a knee replacement before a “number of different things were diagnosed.”
“She had some problems with her heart. The gradual withdrawal from life was something I think she found very, very difficult. She was a gregarious person and full of fun. In the end, she was diagnosed with kidney failure. Then she got pneumonia and we went into hospital. We had a pretty bad experience there,” he revealed.
He credited the care she received at a Marie Curie hospice for making a significant difference, noting that she was happier during her final days than she had been in the preceding six years.
Michael, who had three children with Helen, addeed: “I do think about death, and my family is rather wonderful about it, asking things like ‘Have you made a will? Can I be in your will?'”.
“I’ve made my will and all that. My family, my children, know where to find what they need to find should I die.”
He maintained that he doesn’t dwell on his own mortality and instead focuses on living each day, although he does admit to being “slightly unsteady” on his feet at times.
He stated: “I’m 82 now, which is longer than any Palin male has lived for 200 years. I keep fit and I’m working, fortunately, and doing some quite difficult stuff, filming and all that.
“I kid myself that I’m going to be alright, and yet I know that I won’t because you feel tired at certain times. You’re slightly unsteady as you get out of bed, and you think, what’s happening? Well, the old car’s getting a bit rusty.”
