Personal Life
Merton married actress Caroline Quentin in 1990; they divorced in 1997. Merton subsequently 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. He married fellow improviser Suki Webster in 2009.
Shortly before becoming a household name on Have I Got News for You, Merton booked himself into the Maudsley psychiatric hospital for six weeks, due to psychiatric problems caused by the malaria medicine Lariam. 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 Freemasons".
He used the Maudsley episode as a key framework in his 2012 tour, Out Of My Head. He gave many examples of his experiences there, conversations with staff and fellow inmates 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.
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