Miriam Margolyes continues to work in her eighties because she fears that her future care bills are going to leave her destitute.
The 83-year-old actress, who suffers with spinal stenosis, told the Radio Times: ‘I’m worried that I won’t have enough money for carers when I finally get paralysed or whatever it is that’s going to happen to me.’
Spinal stenosis occurs when space around the spinal cord becomes too narrow, compressing the nerves.
Margolyes main source of income is her television work. She stars as Mother Mildred in Call the Midwife, has fronted numerous documentaries, and is also regular raconteur on the chat show circuit, sharing Graham Norton’s sofa with the likes of musician will.i.am and the late Friends star Matthew Perry.
She also has a lucrative side hustle making videos for fans on the Cameo website, where she charges £100 for a special greeting clip from her, and estimates it has netted her a whopping £365,000 since 2020. Last year she earnt £250,000 for her memoir Oh Miriam!
Miriam Margolyes, 83, continues to work in her eighties because she fears that her future care bills are going to leave her destitute.
The actress, who suffers with spinal stenosis said: ‘I’m worried that I won’t have enough money for carers when I finally get paralysed or whatever it is that’s going to happen to me' (pictured in Call the Midwife)
Discussing her financial woes, the Harry Potter star added: ‘I’m saving up cash so that I can pay people to look after me and my partner. We don’t have children, so I need to make sure I’m going to be looked after in the way that I’ve become accustomed.’
Margolyes, who has been with her partner Heather since 1968, lives in Clapham, south London.
Her latest TV project, a three-part BBC travel series titled Miriam Margolyes: a New Australian Adventure out in August, will see the fearless thespian traveling around on a mobility school.
Although at first she was reluctant to let the cameras film her, she has now become a role model for older people.
She said: ‘When I started kind of failing physically, I remember saying to directors and producers, please don’t show me clambering out of a car or climbing upstairs on my hands and knees. I didn’t want people to see that because I was embarrassed to see myself looking so pathetic.:
‘But, subsequently, I’ve met loads of people who have said I gave them the courage to do things that they never thought they could. So I’m very pleased about that.’
Last year, Margolyes underwent major heart surgery to replace her aortic valve and it made her reflect on her own mortality. She said: ‘I’m always quoting William Saroyan, who says: 'I know that everyone has to die, but I thought an exception might be made in my case.' I know now that is definitely not true.’
It comes after spoke about her Cameo earning drying an appearance on Loose Women earlier this month, before causing chaos once again by swearing.
