Legendary Monty Python star Michael Palin has shared a heartbreaking message about going through grief as he said "you absolutely don't know" when you're going to die. The 82-year-old star confessed that "loss is like dodging fire on a battlefield" as he opened up on being by his late wife, Helen's, side during her final moments.

Speaking on a recent episode of the Marie Curie Couch podcast, Sir Michael Palin talked with Jason Davidson about dealing with grief after Helen died back in 2023. He heartbreakingly shared: "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." Speaking about how he struggled to come to terms with his wife's death, Michael continued: "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."

At the time of her death, Michael shared that they first met while holidaying in the seaside town of Southwold, Suffolk, and he fictionalised the encounter in a 1987 BBC drama titled East of Ipswich.

They were just 16 when they met and married in their early twenties before having three children together. They were married for 57 years at the time of her death. Explaining how she died, Michael wrote: “She had been suffering with chronic pain for several years, which was compounded a few years ago by a diagnosis of kidney failure."

In the podcast chat, he added: "She’d been in pain for about five or six years following a knee replacement. There was some nerve pain that kept going, which reduced her ability to get about and enjoy life.

*** Ensure our latest showbiz headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings. ***

"Then 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."

Just before her death, Helen was moved into a Marie Curie Hospice which made a massive improvement to her final days.

Michael shared: "She couldn’t have had a better last few days of her life. She was happier than I’d seen her for six years, to be honest."