Michael Palin, 80, discusses the ‘great emptiness’ he feels after losing his beloved wife Helen and reveals she decided to give up dialysis following years of being ‘so ill and disabled’

Michael Palin has spoken out about the ‘great emptiness’ left by his beloved wife Helen following her death in May. 

The actor, 80, sadly lost his partner following a brave battle with chronic pain and kidney failure, just weeks after their 57th wedding anniversary. 

In a new heartbreaking interview, Michael revealed Helen died after she decided to give up dialysis following years of being ‘so ill and disabled’.

A grieving Michael said to The Times: ‘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.’

Candid: Michael Palin, 80, opened up about the ‘great emptiness’ left by beloved wife Helen following her tragic death in May

RIP: The actor sadly lost his partner following he brave battle with chronic pain and kidney failure, just weeks after their 57th wedding anniversary (pictured together in 2015) 

He said: ‘The last ten 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.’

According to the NHS Dialysis is a procedure to remove waste products and excess fluid from the blood when the kidneys stop working properly. 

Michael and Helen were childhood sweethearts and shared children Thomas, 54, William, 52, and Rachel, 48, as well as four grandchildren.

He added: ‘We had lots of laughs together, so I’m very keen to keep humour as part of her memory. I don’t want it to be seen as a dark pit into which I have now fallen.’ 

When announcing the sad news the Monty Python star branded his wife the ‘bedrock of my life’ and said her death was an ‘indescribable loss’ for himself and their children.

The Monty Python star told how Helen had been suffering with chronic pain for a few years and had been diagnosed with kidney failure before her death. 

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

Announcing the news on his blog, Michael shared a selfie of them together and wrote: ‘My dearest wife Helen died peacefully in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

‘She had been suffering with chronic pain for several years, which was compounded a few years ago by a diagnosis of kidney failure.

Ill health: He also shared with the publication how his wife had decided to give up dialysis after having relied on procedure to stay alive amid kidney failure (pictured together in 2005) 

Soul mates: Michael and Helen wed in 1966 when they were in their early 20s after a six-year relationship

‘We first met on a summer holiday on the Suffolk coast when we were both sixteen and we married in our early twenties. Two and a half weeks ago we celebrated our 57th wedding anniversary.

‘Her death is an indescribable loss for myself, our three children and four grandchildren.

‘Helen was the bedrock of my life. Her quietly wise judgment informed all my decisions and her humour and practical good sense was was at the heart of our life together. The family ask that their privacy be respected at this time.’

Last September, Michael spoke about Helen’s ill-health as he revealed that she had been moved into respite care from the home they had shared for 50 years.

He explained that she had not been responding to medication for her chronic pain, saying they had moved her to help her ‘manage’ her symptoms.

During their 57-year marriage, the childhood sweethearts had three children together – Thomas, 54, William, 52, and Rachel, 48 (pictured in 1980) 

The couple (pictured in 1989) met when they were just 16 years old and marked their 57th wedding anniversary just weeks before Helen’s death 

The comedian told the Telegraph at the time: ‘I don’t think you can cure it, but they will help her manage it. 

‘It’s such a bore. She was so active and still is mentally. But the body is declining. We live life with our fingers crossed.’

Michael and Helen met as teenagers when they were both on summer holidays in Southwold, Suffolk, where they were staying in neighbouring cottages with their families.

He described Helen as a ‘vision of rebellion’ when he first met her and admitted their romance quickly blossomed, according to The Telegraph.

Michael was living in Sheffield at the time while Helen was in Cambridgeshire, but the pair remained in touch by writing letters and met again the following summer.

They were then reunited on Michael’s first day at Oxford University, where Helen was visiting her friend for the weekend, with fate bringing them together once again.

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