Sir Michael Palin has introduced the demise of his spouse, Helen, after 57 years of marriage.

The 79-year-old TV star, who's greatest identified for his half in irreverent comedy group Monty Python, shared news of her demise on his official web site.

He 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 season vacation on the Suffolk coast after we had been each sixteen and we married in our early twenties. Two and a half weeks in the past we celebrated our 57th wedding ceremony anniversary.

"Her demise is an indescribable loss for myself, our three youngsters and 4 grandchildren.

"Helen was the bedrock of my life. Her quietly wise judgment informed all my decisions, and her humour and practical good sense was at the heart of our life together."

The household have requested that their privateness be revered at the moment.

Palin fictionalised the couple's assembly within the 1987 BBC tv drama East of Ipswich, set in a Fifties Suffolk seaside city.

Read extra:Monty Python: New Holy Grail sketches found in Michael Palin's archives

The couple, who settled in Gospel Oak, northwest London, went on to have three youngsters - Thomas, William and Rachel.

Following his success in Monty Python - alongside Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Terry Jones - Palin went on to star in movies together with A Fish Called Wanda, for which he received a BAFTA.

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He has since reinvented himself as a globetrotter and journey presenter, visiting areas together with North Korea and the Himalayas for BBC documentaries and has written quite a few journey books.

In 2019, Palin was knighted for providers to journey, tradition and geography.

The identical yr, he was pressured to cancel a UK-wide ebook tour to permit him to bear coronary heart surgical procedure to repair a "leaky" valve.