Michael Palin says he feels less grief now two years on from death of his beloved wife
23 June 2025, 09:03
Sir Michael Palin has said he feels less grief now two years on from the death of his wife.
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The 82-year-old Monty Python star announced in May 2023 that his wife of 57 years, Helen Gibbins, had died after suffering from chronic pain and kidney failure.
The couple met on a beach in Suffolk when he was still a teenager.
Read More: Michael Palin 'given up' on trying to hold Monty Python cast together
In an interview with Saga magazine, Sir Michael said: "I can see why people say it takes two years or so before your response gradually changes.
"It becomes less about loss and more about the spirit of that person being around, so that's very nice.
"I feel less grief now, and more that I've got to keep on doing things, looking after the children we made together.
"I talk to myself as if she's there. I'll show some spectacular bit of incompetence that I know she would have found funny, then I'll hear myself saying something in the way she would have said it and I'll laugh, even though I'm the only one there.
"Imagining her being there makes me laugh."
Sir Michael met his future wife while holidaying in the seaside town of Southwold, Suffolk, and later fictionalised the encounter in a 1987 TV drama for the BBC titled East Of Ipswich.
The couple had three children and four grandchildren, and celebrated their wedding anniversary just two-and-a-half weeks before Ms Gibbins' death.
Sir Michael told the magazine he has not had counselling or therapy.
"I know myself quite well. I'd like to work it out myself, if I can," he said.
Sir Michael added: "I get dark days, when you feel a bit down and wonder what you're going to do on a cold autumn Sunday on your own, but I factor that in.
"I know I'm going to feel her loss at certain times. The family have been my bereavement counsellors really.
"Fortunately, the three children all live quite close. You might see pagodas, volcanoes and waterfalls all round the world, but what's really important is who comes round for dinner on a Sunday."
Speaking about whether he will find love again, Sir Michael said: "We were a unit for so long. You can never begin to replace a relationship which lasted 60 years.
"I'm OK living on my own, then I go off to Venezuela or somewhere. I'm not moping."
