The comedian, actor and presenter joined host Jonathan Ross, 58, on The Jonathan Ross Show, which is set to air this weekend. Asked about his relationship with his wife Helen Gibbins, Michael Palin recalled their heartwarming love story. “I met this girl on holiday when I was 15 years old, she was 16,” he said. “We had a holiday romance.
“A year later, she was back in the same little Suffolk town and the romance got a bit more intense, we held hands,” he continued.
“And then the third year she wasn’t there, we didn’t see each other during the year because we lived in separate parts of the country.”
Monty Python legend Michael said he and Helen had kept in contact, writing letters to each other.
“I was very much in love with her,” he added.
“Then that all ended and about four years later I got into Oxford University and the first man I met there had a girlfriend who worked at a Teacher’s Training College in London and he said, ‘Come up to Oxford.’
“And she said, ‘Can I bring my friend, she’s called Helen and I think she says she knows Michael from way back,’” Michael recounted.
“So she came back and the whole relationship started again and we’ve been married 53 years.”
Michael and Helen are parents to three children.
On The Jonathan Ross Show, which will air Saturday evening, he went on to speak out about his recent documentary which saw him travel to North Korea, admitting the experience was “very scary”.
“It’s actually the only time that my wife wasn’t keen for me to do a travel series,” he said. “And normally, she is very keen!
“I think she was nervous, as I was because that part of the world changes so fast.
“You knew that if you were there and something went wrong and a missile went off, you probably wouldn’t get out so I was nervous until I got there,” he added.
The three-part travel series aired last year and saw Michael broadcast an insight into life in North Korea.
Elsewhere, Michael previously opened up about his relationship with Helen, telling The Telegraph: “What is the really important thing in a relationship, what is the main thing?
“Sex, or going to the theatre, or having lots of friends, or whatever? None of that matters.
“There’s something underneath that works, that you’re happy to be with somebody for an awful lot of time.”
The Jonathan Ross Show airs Saturday at 9.15pm on ITV.