Sir Michael Palin has shared a deeply personal and emotional account of life after losing his beloved wife, Helen, in 2023. Now 82, the Monty Python legend says he has come to terms with death—and even feels “prepared” for it.
Speaking on the On the Marie Curie Couch podcast, Palin reflected on the quiet heartbreak of life without Helen, whom he met on a holiday in 1959 when he was just 16. “It was a holiday romance that built into a long marriage. We were a unit. I didn’t realise how much until after she’d gone,” he said, his voice tinged with grief.
Even now, he struggles to use the word “I”, admitting: “I still say ‘we have two grandchildren’, as if she’s still here. Saying ‘I’ feels wrong.”
Palin opened up about Helen’s years-long health struggles, which began after a knee replacement and worsened with heart problems, kidney failure, and eventually pneumonia. “She was gregarious and full of life. But as her health declined, she withdrew—and that was very hard for her,” he recalled.
He praised the Marie Curie hospice staff who cared for Helen in her final days, saying they brought her more peace than she’d known in the previous six years. “They made such a difference,” he said quietly.
Now a widower, Palin has had frank conversations with his adult children—William, Rachel and Thomas—about death. He’s already made his will and ensured they know where to find everything. “My family is quite matter-of-fact. They ask, ‘Can I be in the will?’” he joked.
Despite his age, the actor and adventurer still keeps active. “I kid myself that I’m going to be alright,” he said, though he admitted he sometimes feels “unsteady” getting out of bed. “The old car’s getting rusty.”
Michael underwent open-heart surgery in 2019 and says that Helen’s death has helped shift his perspective on mortality—something his generation was taught to avoid discussing. Now, he’s choosing openness over fear.
“I do think about death,” he said, “but I try not to dwell on it. I just live each day.”
