Michael Palin, 83, breaks ribs in horror fall and cancels book tour

Sir Michael Palin has been forced to call off his UK book tour after breaking three ribs in an accident at home.

In an Instagram update on Tuesday, the actor apologised “profusely” to supporters, explaining that the cancellations were caused by a fall in his bathroom which resulted in three fractured ribs and a minor pelvic fracture.

He 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."

Making light of the incident with a nod to a famous Monty Python sketch featuring John Cleese, he added: "It was a comedy fall with no audience there to see it. I shall stick to fish slapping dances from now on.”

Sir Michael Palin has broken three ribs in an accident at home

PA Wire

Sir Michael signed off: "Sincere apologies to everyone who has already put in a lot of work on the tour. I’d also like to say a huge thanks to the NHS for their incredible care."

Ticket holders will be contacted with rescheduled dates “as soon as they are available”, according to a statement on Sir Michael’s website.

Sir Michael has continued to throw himself into travelling around the world since the death of his wife of 57 years, Helen Gibbins, in 2023 from chronic pain and kidney failure.

The couple met at the seaside when he was still a teenager and Sir Michael described her as “the bedrock of my life.”

“We were together for a very long time. We were married for 57 years and I met her before that so more than two thirds of my life was spent with her. And so you form a kind of unit,” he said on Rob Brydon’s Wondery podcast Brydon &.

“You don’t realise that until someone’s gone and then it’s slightly lopsided, like something tips over, and your rudder goes. You end up thinking it was just me but I need my partner there to sort of keep me on the straight and narrow.”

Sir Michael with his late wife Helen

PA Archive

The couple had three children and four grandchildren, and celebrated their wedding anniversary just two-and-a-half weeks before her death.

“I talk to myself as if she’s there. I’ll show some spectacular bit of incompetence that I know she would have found funny, then I’ll hear myself saying something in the way she would have said it and I’ll laugh, even though I’m the only one there,” he told Saga magazine in 2025.

Sir Michael added that he has not had counselling or therapy, preferring to “work on it” himself.

“I get dark days, when you feel a bit down and wonder what you’re going to do on a cold autumn Sunday on your own, but I factor that in. I know I’m going to feel her loss at certain times. The family have been my bereavement counsellors really,” he explained.

“Fortunately, the three children all live quite close. You might see pagodas, volcanoes and waterfalls all round the world, but what’s really important is who comes round for dinner on a Sunday.”