Editing Paul Merton (section)

== Personal life ==
Merton married actress [[Caroline Quentin]] in 1990; they announced their separation in April 1997, which was followed by divorce in 1998.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/oct/29/features.magazine37|title=Paul Merton interview: fears of a clown|author=Lynn Barber|work=The Observer|date=29 October 2000|location=London|access-date=12 December 2016|archive-date=21 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921211041/https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/oct/29/features.magazine37|url-status=live}}</ref> Merton had a relationship with producer and actress [[Sarah Parkinson]]; they were married unofficially in a service in the [[Maldives]] in 2000. They were officially married three months before her death from [[breast cancer]] on 23 September 2003.<ref>{{Cite news|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3137446.stm|title = Comic Paul Merton's wife dies|date = 24 September 2003|access-date = 27 August 2021|archive-date = 6 March 2012|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120306041226/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3137446.stm|url-status = live}}</ref> He married fellow improviser Suki Webster in 2009 and they live in [[Sudbury, Suffolk]].

Shortly before becoming a household name on ''Have I Got News for You'', Merton booked himself into the [[Maudsley Hospital|Maudsley psychiatric hospital]] for six weeks, because of psychiatric problems caused by the malaria medicine [[Mefloquine|Lariam]].<ref name="mirror">{{cite news |author=Kevin Maguire |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/inside-the-mind-of-paul-merton-ahead-774356 |title=Inside the mind of Paul Merton |work=Daily Mirror |date=28 March 2012 |access-date=25 September 2012 |archive-date=1 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120701032753/http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/inside-the-mind-of-paul-merton-ahead-774356 |url-status=live }}</ref> In an interview with ''[[The Guardian]]'' he was reported to have been "hallucinating conversations with friends, and became convinced he was a target for the [[Freemasonry|Freemasons]]".<ref name="guardian2">{{cite news |author=Barbara Ellen |url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1386064,00.html |title=Barbara Ellen meets Paul Merton |work=The Guardian |date=9 January 2005 |access-date=3 March 2010 |location=London |archive-date=5 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205093659/http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1386064,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

He used his experiences at Maudsley as a key framework in his 2012 tour, ''Out of My Head''. He gave many examples of his misadventures there, conversations with staff and fellow patients were played out as sketches with his fellow performers, [[Richard Vranch]], [[Lee Simpson]] and Suki Webster. He stated that, during his time at the Maudsley, he was simultaneously appearing in ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' on Channel 4.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}