Sir Michael Palin hears his late wife’s voice urging him to “get on with it”.
Sir Michael Palin hears his late wife’s voice urging him to ‘get on with it’
The ‘Monty Python’ veteran, 80, was left devastated when his partner Helen died in May after she was stricken with kidney failure weeks after their 57th wedding anniversary.
He told ITV’s ‘Lorraine’ show on Thursday (28.09.23) about how Helen wouldn’t have wanted him to “mope about” as he revealed plans for his latest TV travel show: “I’m ok – I hear her voice all the time saying, ‘Get on with it – don’t mope about!’
“She will always be on my mind and by my side all the time. After sharing six decades together, we knew each other so well and I can’t share that with anybody else.”
Michael added about Helen’s death, which came after she gave up dialysis following years of agony and illness: “She had lost her independence. She didn’t want to live being guided around every room.”
The comic and actor added about his upcoming show: “I’m going to west Africa soon. I'm getting back on the road. I hope I will be OK.
“I’m lucky that I am quite well. There’s still lots of places I want to go. I still have that curiosity and I think that keeps you going.”
Michael previously told The Times newspaper about his grief over Helen’s death: “When someone’s gone… someone who has been so much part of your life for the past 60 years… you can’t believe they're not there to enjoy a little joke, or an observation, or a b**** about somebody.
“A great sort of emptiness comes in. The last 10 days of her life – I’ve never seen her happier in a way.
“She’d accepted it, we’d accepted it, she was in a wonderful hospice. The children and grandchildren had all come to see her, so her death was a great deliverance for her.”
Michael and Helen met when they were 16, married in 1966 and had children Thomas, 54, William, 52, and Rachel, 48, as well as four grandchildren.
He described her as the “bedrock of my life” when he announced her death on his blog.
Michael added: Her quietly wise judgment informed all my decisions and her humour and practical good sense was at the heart of our life together.”
The actor has had his health woes in recent years and underwent heart surgery in 2019 to fix a leaky mitral valve after he was advised by doctors to have it repaired.
He admitted on his blog he was forced to give up running after 40 years and said he had “taken to long walks instead”.
Visit itv.com to watch his full interview on ‘Loraine’, which airs weekdays from 9am on ITV1 and ITVX.
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