Sir Michael Palin, 81, reveals his regret over leaving late wife Helen Gibbins to ‘look after herself’ while he jetted off to film travel documentaries

They were married for 57 years after meeting as teenagers on holiday in Suffolk.

But Sir Michael Palin has revealed his regrets about leaving his wife Helen while she was severely ill to make travel documentaries.

The mother of their three children — Thomas, 56, William, 53, and Rachel, 49 — had been suffering chronic pain for several years and then developed kidney failure.

She passed away at the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead, north London, on May 2, 2023.  

Monty Python star Sir Michael, 81, said: ‘I don’t have regrets really. Perhaps towards the end, when I was doing the later travel journeys like North Korea.

Sir Michael Palin, 81, has revealed his regrets about leaving his wife Helen while she was severely ill to make travel documentaries

The mother of their three children — Thomas, 56, William, 53, and Rachel, 49 — had been suffering chronic pain for several years and then developed kidney failure (pictured 2009)

Monty Python star Sir Michael, 81, said: ‘I don’t have regrets really. ‘Perhaps towards the end, when I was doing the later travel journeys like North Korea (pictured) 

‘Helen was then less well, less good at looking after herself, unfortunately, and that was a slightly difficult time.

‘I don’t think she particularly wanted me to go away then, but she knew that my interest in travel and other people was very deep-seated, it wasn’t because I wanted to get away from home — it wasn’t that at all.’

Sir Michael and Gibbins met at the seaside town of Southwold when they were 16.

They reconnected by chance in the actor’s first year at Oxford University, before marrying at the age of 22.

Recalling the reunion, Sir Michael said: ‘You can see fate actually tightening the screws on us very hard at that time.’

The Pole To Pole author has released a new book, There And Back, of his diaries which he said helped him cope with his wife’s health issues.

He said: ‘Helen was ill for a couple of years, so it wasn’t a sudden death, and I was helping her and caring for her through a lot of pain. Writing this down helped me to deal with it. I needed to remember all that.’

While the BBC TV director was suffering from kidney failure, Sir Michael was travelling to make documentaries about North Korea and Iraq for Channel 5 after he left the BBC in 2012.

He said: ‘I don’t think she particularly wanted me to go away then, but she knew that my interest in travel and other people was very deep-seated, it wasn’t because I wanted to get away from home — it wasn’t that at all’  [pictured in 2015]

The childhood sweethearts met when they were 16 and married in 1966, marking their 57th wedding anniversary weeks before Helen passed away [pictured in 1986]

Last week the actor heartbreakingly admitted that his late wife’s clothes were still hanging ‘in the cupboard’ as they make it feel as if she was ‘still here’.

Over a year since his agonising loss, Michael told how he likes to see her belongings around their home as it reminds him of the time they spend together, with the star adding that it’s the reason he will never move.

Speaking in an interview with The Times, Michael said on the possibility of moving: ‘I don’t feel that way – at the moment, anyway. Everything around me has a story or something that reminds me of time we spent together, not in a maudlin way’. 

‘Just they are the props of your life. Get rid of all those props and I’d be in a different play, playing a different character. And I don’t want to do that.

‘I know it seems odd, but I carry on as though Helen is still here. Her clothes are still in the cupboards. I don’t want to change my life, because I feel she wouldn’t want that either. It’s still a nice house to come back to. I feel her presence here.’ 

After almost six decades of marriage to the love of his life, Michael went on to say that he couldn’t imaging starting a relationship with anyone new as he was still ‘bereft’ over losing Helen.

He shared: ‘I shared my life with someone for so long that I find it impossible to think of sharing it in the same way with anyone else again. So in a way, I’m sort of freer.’

Last week the actor heartbreakingly admitted that his late wife’s clothes were still hanging ‘in the cupboard’ as they make it feel as if she was ‘still here’

Over a year since his agonising loss, Michael told how he likes to see her belongings around their home as it reminds him of the time they spend together, with the star adding that it’s the reason he will never move 

The TV personality said he found it ‘odd’ with her not around, especially when coming home from the theatre or dinner and wanting to tell her about his experience. 

He added that he misses ‘the little things’ about their relationship, adding that he still finds it ‘very difficult’ without her – especially when it comes to cooking.

Sir Michael revealed he left the BBC after 23 years when he grew ‘frustrated’ with the network’s ‘controlling’ behaviour and editing style for his shows.

He told Radio Times: ‘There was the feeling that the BBC wanted to interfere a little more and they wanted to control it a little more.

‘And they had this new way of presenting shows – which I would get absolutely, desperately frustrated with – where they would show, in the first five minutes, all the great moments of what was to come.

‘Because this captured viewers. Otherwise, as soon as they see Michael Palin, they’ll switch off.

‘The BBC was going in a different direction, and the presentation was going in a different direction.’