Miriam Margoyles, 83, fears she will run out of money to pay carers amid health woes and continues working to ‘save cash’

Miriam Margoyles 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.

Margoyles 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!

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.’

Margoyles, who has been with her partner Heather since 1968, lives in Clapham, south London.

Click here to resize this module

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, Margoyles 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. 

Miriam charges a staggering $170 (£135) plus for each video which can be either a birthday message, pep talk, a roast, advice or a question answered. Her average video length is two minutes long. 

While discussing her money making side job, Miriam, who is known for her potty-mouth, instantly dropped a swear word during the lunchtime show.

She is famously very outspoken and has let slip many swear words and X-rated comments during her TV appearances over the years.

She said: ‘Since Covid I have made £365,000 through cameos and personalised videos.

‘One day I will need carers. I want to be comfortable and I want them to be properly paid for. 

‘It is really because I want to make money though and they pay me to do it.’

Jokingly, Kaye asked: ‘Is there anything you wouldn’t do for money?’

She replied: ‘I wouldn’t ‘eat s***’. Am I allowed to say that?

‘No’, replied Kaye.

‘Oh ok I wouldn’t eat faeces’, she added. 

Read Miriam’s interview in Radio Times out now.