Miriam Margolyes opens up about rarely-seen partner of almost 60 years: ‘She’s my person’

Harry Potter star and British national treasure Miriam Margolyes has shared a rare insight into her relationship with her partner Heather, as the couple mark nearly 60 years together.

The disarmingly candid, potty-mouthed actress and author met Australian professor Heather back in 1968, while Margolyes was working on a BBC radio drama.

In their later years, the couple entered a civil partnership, which Margolyes once said was “nothing about romance” and rather for more practical reasons, such as being the next of kin if one of them were to fall ill.

Speaking to the Daily Mail recently, the BAFTA award-winning The Age of Innocence star spoke openly about her love for the woman she describes as her “person”.

“We really do love each other,” Margolyes said. “She is a remarkable, brilliant woman and every conversation with her is uplifting and surprising and fun and sometimes full of anger, but she’s my person and I’m her person and we should live together when we’re old.”

Despite their relationship spanning almost six decades, the pair have never lived together full-time. The actress lives in London, while Heather resides in the Dutch city of Amsterdam. However, the pair do enjoy frequent holidays together in Tuscany and New South Wales.

Asked whether she and Heather will ever live together on a permanent basis, the 84-year-old said that she “hopes so”.

“I hope I will be able to live with Heather in the house that we bought together in Italy in 1973 until we die,” she explained.

More than fifty years ago, the couple purchased an old farm house in Italy, and have planned to live there together for some years. In 2023, Miriam Margolyes told Graham Norton on The Graham Norton Show – her favourite chat show to appear on – that it was “silly” for the couple to live separately.

“We are together, but we live apart. She is in Amsterdam, and I am in London but now we want to live together,” she said.

“I really do want to live with her because we are old, and we haven’t got much time left. It is silly to live apart.”

She confirmed to the Daily Mail that she is “starting” to move out of London for Italy, but she has to “come home every so often” due to the fact that, since Brexit, UK residents can only stay in the country for 90 days at a time without a permanent residence permit.

“So I’m thinking I might have to become Dutch. Heather has residency in Europe because she’s lived in Amsterdam for over 50 years, but we want to be together,” she shared.

Elsewhere in her chat with the publication, the veteran actress suggested that she would be open to the prospect of euthanasia if she were to “lose [her] mind completely” prior to her death.

“I don’t want to go through a slowly diminishing period of pain and embarrassment,” she explained.

“If a stroke meant I couldn’t speak, or I was doubly incontinent, or I lost my mind completely, I would ask to be put down. That’s because I want to be who I am. I don’t want to be less than I can be.”

As far as her health battles go, Miriam Margolyes has undergone a major heart operation and battled with spinal stenosis, but she is still doggedly working. She is currently touring her show ​​Miriam Margolyes – From A to Z across the UK.

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