Sir Michael Palin has said that he has been forced to make a difficult life change due to the strain of travelling as an 83-year-old.
The former Monty Python star turned world traveller has visited such far flung climates as the Himalayas, Sahara desert and North Korea as part of his work as a documentarian.
Sir Michael is currently promoting his latest book, titled The Philippines, admitting that his days of world travel may be behind him.
‘I’m at the stage of not knowing whether I’m ever going to travel again,’ he told Mishal Husain on her self-titled talk show for Bloomberg.
‘The journey is becoming increasingly difficult and I found, especially after the Philippines, that I was very, very exhausted,’ he added.
Sir Michael went on to clarify that it wasn’t the places or experiences he was struggling with – but travel itself.
‘Just the physical effort of being 83 years old and having to wait for four hours because the plane’s been delayed, and then your seat’s been changed and all that,’ he said.
‘I mustn’t grumble because I am very, very lucky.
‘When I’m in the place I’m in, I’m absolutely happy. I’ve never been somewhere and felt, “why am I doing this?”‘
He went on to say that he may still travel the UK for work reasons, but is less certain about international journeys.
To make matters worse, Sir Michael suffered an injury soon after the interview, falling in his bathroom and obtaining three fractured ribs and a minor pelvic fracture.
Posting to his Instagram account, Sir Michael wrote: ‘My accident was quite unsensational, a slip in the family bathroom where I’ve walked for 58 years.
‘I fell heavily on my left side resulting in three fractured ribs and a minor pelvic fracture. The recovery of bone fractures takes a long time, especially when you’re 83.’
Referencing his comedy work with Monty Python, he continued: ‘It was a comedy fall with no audience there to see it. I shall stick to fish slapping dances from now on.’
He went on to offer his apologies to those who had contributed to his tour, and thanked the NHS for their ‘incredible care.’
Bloomberg host Mishal commented on the accident in a post to her own Instagram, wishing Sir Michael ‘the speediest of recoveries after his fall.
‘And while he can’t go on his ‘In the Philippines’ book tour – we can bring his travels there to you in this episode.’
Sir Michael previously mooted quitting the travel game after a trip to Iraq in 2022.
He told The Mirror at the time: ‘I don’t know where I want to go now. People say where are you going to now? I say the chemist.
‘I feel enormously privileged and grateful that I’ve done as much travelling as I have in the last 35 years.
‘There have been good times, interesting times, exciting times, and adventure. But at a certain point you do have to be careful about what you do next.’
However, soon after, he announced the death of wife Helen, who he had married in 1966 after meeting as teenagers.
‘I hear her voice all the time saying, “get on with it and don’t mope about or look gloomy”,’ he said on an episode of Lorraine in 2023.
‘Of course, life will never be the same without her, but I will remember her and she will be by my side the rest of my life, but she would be saying to “get on with it”.’
He continued: ‘The real problem is, the great thing about knowing someone for six decades is that it is not what you talk about all the time, it’s what you don’t need to talk about – the little things like a glance, which I can’t share with anybody else.’