Miriam Margolyes, the Oxford-born actress beloved for her role as Professor Sprout in Harry Potter, has spoken about media claims concerning her “imminent demise” while candidly addressing her concerns over ageing and loss of autonomy.
In a recent Q&A with The Guardian, she quipped that the closest she’s come to dying was “when the media, en masse, reported my imminent demise.”
She shared that her deepest fear is to “experience the utter powerlessness of locked-in syndrome,” followed by dread of becoming “doubly incontinent” as she grows older.
Earlier this year, Margolyes spoke to the Daily Mail about assisted dying.
She didn’t hold back: “I don’t want to go through a slowly diminishing period of pain and embarrassment. 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.”
Following concerns she might’ve had her entire heart replaced, she cleared the air on the Table Manners podcast: “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.”
Margolyes revealed a stark assessment of her future in an interview with The Times: “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.”
She has undergone a transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), replacing her aortic valve with one from a cow, not her entire heart. She’s been open about her statuses: registered disabled, managing spinal stenosis, arthritis, and mobility challenges—using sticks, a walker, and even a mobility scooter.
In August 2025, she reaffirmed in Weekend Magazine that she strongly supports assisted dying under certain conditions—if she couldn’t speak, became incontinent, or lost her mind.
She has unequivocally rejected inaccurate claims that she was “at death’s door,” calling them “b******s” and emphasizing she’s “very much alive" and performing at the Edinburgh Fringe.