Miriam Margolyes shares plans to ditch Britain for home abroad as she makes thinly-veiled Brexit complaint

Miriam Margolyes has revealed plans to leave the UK and spend her later years in Italy with her long-term partner Heather Sutherland, citing complications following Brexit.

The 84-year-old actress, best known for playing Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series, said the UK’s exit from the EU has made it difficult to live in the Italian home she purchased.

“[Brexit] has affected my life because I can't go and live in the house that I bought,” she said during an appearance on The Romesh Ranganathan Show.

“[It’s the] first house I ever bought in Italy, which is where Heather and I wanted to end our lives together.”

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Ms Margolyes said she may now need to obtain European citizenship to resolve the issue.

“I’m going to have to become Dutch or Italian,” she said.

“I’m already Australian as well as English, so how many nationalities do you have to have before you can live in the house that’s yours?”

The veteran performer, who has previously spoken candidly about her mortality, underwent an aortic valve replacement in 2023 to avoid open-heart surgery.

She also made a heartfelt public appeal to David Essex, her former co-star in a 1993 West End production of She Stoops to Conquer.

“If David Essex watches this, I’m really keen to see him again,” she said.

“I don’t know how to get in touch with him, but he’s so lovely.”

Looking directly into the camera, she added: “Dave, it’s Miriam… I’m nearly 85, and I don’t want to die before seeing you again.”

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Ms Margolyes also spoke openly about the physical challenges of ageing.

The star revealed that a long-standing shoulder injury has left her unable to dress independently.

“I’ve got a bad shoulder… the rotator cuff doesn’t quite cuff or rotate,” she said, adding that pelvic floor weakness is “the worst bit” about reaching her eighties.

Elsewhere in the interview, the actress disclosed she has earned significantly more from Cameo than from her role in Harry Potter.

She said she has made around £570,000 on the platform since 2020, nearly 10 times the £60,000 she earned for appearing in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

Charging fans £100 per personalised video, Ms Margolyes said many requests now involve advice and “pep talks” rather than simple greetings.

The actress added that the additional income allows her to “spend rather more freely”, despite insisting the Harry Potter franchise was not her most significant work.

Ms Margolyes also admitted she had not fully grasped the cultural impact of Harry Potter on fans’ childhoods at the time.

“When people say on Cameo, ‘we’re having a Harry Potter themed wedding,’ and I would say, ‘Well, I think it’s time you let that go.’ But you can’t let go of bits of your childhood, and I didn’t realise that because it wasn’t my childhood,” she said.

“I was in my 50s or 60s when I did that."

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