Miriam Margolyes has given a heartbreaking update on her health as the Harry Potter star says she "doesn’t have long to live".
The 84-year-old actress, best known for playing Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter films, has long been candid about her declining health, and in a new interview with Weekend Magazine, she admitted she feels her issues stem largely from her weight.
“I’ve let my body down,” she confessed. “I haven’t taken care of it. I have to walk with a walker now. I wish I’d done exercise. It’s the most ghastly waste of time, except that it keeps you going. So, I’m foolish.”
Asked whether she’d consider Ozempic, the FDA-approved medication for people with type 2 diabetes that has recently gained traction in Hollywood as a weight-loss aid, Margolyes was clear in her response.
“Absolutely not,” she said. “That’s for diabetics. You shouldn’t take medicine meant for people who are really sick. What I do think is we should not have food advertising on television.”
Her update comes after a string of serious health concerns in recent years.
In May 2023, she was hospitalized at The Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, London, with a chest infection.
While recovering, she wrote on Facebook: “Thanks to my precious friends who thought of me on TAVI DAY. I did survive and am still in The Royal Brompton Hospital certainly till Sunday. I am growing energy but it’s still not quite me. I am putting this so you know how grateful I am for lovely messages.”
Later that year, she underwent a transcatheter aortic valve replacement.
Speaking on the Table Manners podcast, she said: “I’ve got a cow’s heart now. Well, not the whole heart. I’ve had an aortic valve replaced by a cow’s aortic valve. I don’t know how common it is. I’d never heard of that operation. But it saves you from having open heart surgery, which would be infinitely more invasive.”
Despite the procedure’s success, Margolyes has continued to face mobility issues linked to spinal stenosis — a condition that narrows the spinal canal and puts pressure on the spinal cord and nerves — as well as osteoporosis.
“I can’t walk very well, and I’m registered disabled,” she told Closer Magazine. “I use all kinds of assistance. I’ve got two sticks and a walker, and they’re such a bore, but I’ve just got a mobility scooter, which is a lot of fun.”
She added with a laugh: “It’s like having a new toy. It’s very good for shopping because it’s got a basket on it - and I do enjoy whizzing around on it immensely.”
Margolyes has also spoken frankly about how her lifelong love of food has impacted her health.
Appearing nude in British Vogue for Pride month in June 2023, she admitted: “I’ve limited my life because of my longing for fudge or chopped liver, cheesecake. All these absurdities. I shouldn’t have been so greedy. I should have been stronger.”
In interviews, the Doctor Who and Call the Midwife star has not shied away from confronting her mortality, telling The Times in May: “When you know that you haven’t got long to live, and I’m probably going to die within the next five or six years, if not before, I’m loath to leave behind performing. It’s such a joy. I yearn to play roles that don’t confine me to wheelchairs, but I’m just not strong enough.”
Margolyes previously told British Vogue: “When you’re young, you never think about death. You just think about your next f*** basically. I think about death a lot.
"You can’t help but be aware that the amount of time ahead is less than the time before you. I’m still ducking and diving. I’m still open to new experiences. I’m just very conscious that there is no light at the end of the tunnel.”