Harry Potter icon 'doesn't have long to live': 'Not strong enough'

legend Miriam Margolyes has issued a devastating update about her health, saying she believes she doesn't have long left to live. The 84-year-old star, known to millions for her role as Professor Sprout in the blockbuster film series, revealed in a candid interview that she is beginning to prepare for the end of her life. "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," she told . Margolyes has long battled spinal stenosis - a condition that narrows the spinal canal and can cause significant pain, muscle weakness and mobility problems. She has also undergone major heart surgery, which she described in her trademark vivid and humorous fashion during a recent appearance on Jessie and Lennie Ware's Table Manners podcast.

"I've got a cow's heart now," she revealed. "Well, not the whole heart. I've had an aortic valve replaced by a cow's aortic valve."

The BAFTA-winning actress admitted she had never heard of the procedure before undergoing it herself, but explained: "It saves you from having open heart surgery, which would be infinitely more invasive."

Describing the minimally invasive operation in detail, she said: "They made two little holes in your groin. One in each groin and then they shoved this thing through.

"And I don't know how they pull it up but they sort of pull it up with stereos. And then when it comes to the point, when it's in your heart, they pull a little string and it goes pow! And lo and behold, your artery or your aortic valve is shoved unceremoniously to the side."

When asked whether the surgery was common, she quipped: "I think it's rather refined, actually!"

Despite the success of the procedure, Margolyes admits the physical toll of her conditions has deeply impacted the type of work she can now do.

"I yearn to play roles that don't confine me to wheelchairs, but I'm just not strong enough," she confessed.

Still, she hasn't lost her passion for performance. She recently returned to Oxford High School, where she was a former pupil, to attend a student production and reconnect with her roots.

Over her decades-long career, Margolyes has become one of Britain's most beloved character actresses, winning Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTAs in 1993 for The Age of Innocence, and acclaim in Little Dorrit, Blackadder, Call the Midwife and beyond.

Yet to fans across the globe, she will always be Professor Sprout, the Hogwarts Herbology teacher with a heart as warm as her greenhouses.