Miriam Margoyles has revealed that she now struggles to walk and admitted she regrets not making serious life changes after undergoing an operation last year.

The actress, 83, had a transcatheter aortic valve replacement operation in  to avoid a more invasive open-heart surgery, but revealed she still struggles with her health.

The Harry Potter actress also revealed that she is now registered disabled and could be confined to a wheelchair because of a back condition.

Miriam explained that spinal stenosis, which occurs when space around the spinal cord becomes too narrow compressing the nerves, could make it difficult for her to walk, restricting her to a wheelchair.

In an interview with Closer, the star said: ‘I can’t walk very well, and I’m registered disabled, so 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.’

But Miriam also revealed that she regrets not making major lifestyle changes to improve her health.

She said she wished she had been able to conquer her weight and described not doing so as a defeat.

During an appearance on the How To Fail podcast in September, the actress and presenter confessed she had not conquered her weight.

She said: ‘I am a blubber mass. I am fat. And to be fat and 82 is truly pathetic.’.

She has since also revealed her fears as she gets older and worries that she won’t be able to afford carers to look after her as her health worsens.

She told RadioTimes: ‘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.’.

She added that she is now focusing on saving to provide for her and her partner and is embarking on another series of her hit show.

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

The actress is ready to helm a new series of BBC Two’s Miriam Margolyes: A New Australian Adventure, which will be broadcast this Friday.

Miriam’s main source of income is her television work and includes acting and presenting.

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!

Although at first she was reluctant to let the cameras film her, she has now become a role model for older people as part of her adventurous television show.

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.’