Helen Gibbins: Michael Palin announces death of wife - what Monty Python star said in statement

Monty Python star Michael Palin has announced the death of his wife, Helen Gibbins, aged 80. Her death came just two and a half weeks after the couple celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary. 

In the statement regarding her passing, Palin said that Gibbins had been “suffering with chronic pain for several years, which was compounded a few years ago by a diagnosis of kidney failure”. 

He revealed last year that Gibbins had been moved from their family home to respite care after she failed to respond to pain medication. 

How long were Michael Palin and Helen Gibbins together?

Gibbins and Palin met in 1959 when they were both 16 and Palin was on a family holiday in Southwold. Fans of Palin may know that this encounter was later fictionalised in his 1987 BBC TV drama East of Ipswich. 

The two struck up a romance, however at the time, Palin lived in Sheffield and Gibbins in Cambridgeshire. As teenagers the pair wrote to each other, and they met up the next summer. However, the two summers after that, Gibbins didn’t appear. 

Speaking to the Telegraph in 2015, Palin said that something “truly extraordinary” happened when he arrived at Oxford. On his first day, he met a student by the name of Robert Hewison, whose girlfriend came along for a weekend visit, bringing with her a friend. 

“And the friend was this Helen. So you can see fate was tightening the screws on us very hard at the time,” Palin said. 

Gibbins and Palin married in 1966 when they were both in their early 20s, and remained together until Gibbins death. 

Did they have children?

Together, Palin and Gibbins had three children - Thomas, born in 1969, William born in 1971 and Rachel, born in 1975. 

When did she die?

Gibbins passed away “in the early hours of Tuesday (2 May) morning” according to the announcement made by Palin on his official website. 

Palin 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.

“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 judgement informed all my decisions and her humour and practical good sense was at the heart of our life together.

“The family ask that their privacy be respected at this time.”

Last year, Palin told the Telegraph Magazine that Gibbins had moved to respite care after she didn’t respond to pain medication.

He said: “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."