Michael Palin, 83, hints at retirement: ‘It’s becoming increasingly difficult’

Adam WhiteSat, October 17, 2026 at 12:45 PM UTC

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Revelation comes as travel journalist and Monty Python star cancelled a nationwide book tour to recover from an injury sustained at home

Michael Palin has suggested he may retire from professional travelling, after admitting he finds journeys “increasingly difficult”.

The actor, writer and presenter, 83, found fame as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, but in recent decades has become arguably best known for his travel writing and documentaries – he has visited and reported from places as far flung as North Korea, the Himalayas and the Saharas.

While promoting his latest travel book In the Philippines, Palin said that he is unsure whether he will continue journeying across the world for work purposes.

“I’m at the stage of not knowing whether I’m going to travel again,” he told Mishal Husain on her eponymous Bloomberg talk show. “The journey is becoming increasingly difficult and I found, especially after the Philippines, that I was very, very exhausted. Not from seeing places and getting experiences, but 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.”

Michael Palin, pictured in 2025, has hinted at retirement (Getty Images)

Palin added that he still may travel the UK for work reasons, but that international journeys are becoming more of a question mark.

“I mustn’t grumble because I am very, very lucky,” he said. “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?’”

Asked by Husain if Palin’s feelings may have been exacerbated by his visits to “tougher places” that are traditionally “off the tourist track”, Palin said he may agree.

“We’ve coined [them] ‘countries on the edge’,” he said. “They’re countries where something has happened – usually something bad – and they’re either recovering or they’re about to face up to it. And that makes it much more intriguing. It’s not just a place of entertainment.”

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Palin was speaking shortly before he was forced to pull out of a planned tour for his new book due to an injury. On Tuesday (13 November), he announced on Instagram that a nationwide tour as well as “any other events” he had planned over the coming months had been cancelled.

“My accident was quite unsensational, a slip in the family bathroom where I’ve walked for 58 years,” he wrote. “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.”

Ever jovial, Palin joked that it was “a comedy fall with no audience there to see it”.

Palin, photographed in March, last appeared on-screen in the film 'The Magic Faraway Tree' (Getty)

A statement on Palin’s official website stated that ticket holders would be contacted with rescheduled dates “as soon as they are available”.

Last year, Palin revealed that he and his film crew had been held at gunpoint while filming a travelogue in Venezuela for Channel 5. He said that, in a “bizarre” turn of events, the guards eventually found his name online through a Google search while the crew was “waiting to hear our fate” from SEBIN’s headquarters in Caracas.

Palin, who co-founded the Monty Python troupe with friends Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Terry Jones in 1969, said in 2025 that he didn’t believe that one of their most famous works – the religious satire Life of Brian, released in 1979 – would be made today.

“Back then, it was acknowledged that some people had old-fashioned views, and that was that,” he said. “Whereas now there would be much more of a battle. Sides would be taken and people would be influencing others over whether to see it.”

He added that in the present day, everything is “very adversarial and everyone flies off the handle much more quickly”.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”