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Character Profiles > Susan Kennedy Jackie Woodburne

Susan Wendy Kennedy (née Smith, prev. Kennedy, Smith, Kinski) 1994-
Lives: 28 Ramsay Street
Lived: 22, 30 Ramsay Street, Susan's apartment
Born: 1956
Parents: Mr Smith and Grace Smith
Marital Status: Karl Kennedy (divorced 2004; remarried 2007), Alex Kinski (2005; died.)
Siblings: Carmel and Liz
Children: Malcolm, Libby and Billy
Family Tree: Kennedy/Smith
Occupation: Teacher/Principal at Erinsborough High School, The Hungry Bite Cafe Assistant, Student, Newspaper Journalist

Born into a family of teachers, practical, no-nonsense Susan Smith met and fell in love with Karl Kennedy during their first year at university. Susan was studying to become a teacher, while Karl was at medical school, and before they graduated, they were married. Within a year, Susan gave birth to their first child, Malcolm, and less than a year later, daughter Libby was born. By the time Karl and Susan's third child, Billy, was born, Susan was doing only occasional stints of substitute teaching. Susan eventually forfeited her teaching career to raise her three children, and happily played housewife while Karl began his career as a GP, and the family settled in a small country town. In 1994, when the kids were in their teens, Karl was forced to abandon his practice and leave the town after rumours spread that he had caused the death of a patient. Without even consulting Susan, Karl bought a home for the family in the suburb of Erinsborough, and the Kennedys moved into No. 28 Ramsay Street a few weeks later.

Susan quickly became an integral part of the community. As well as being the doctor's wife, she also became actively involved in community fundraising and joined the local drama society, where she took a lead role in an original play called A Nightmare in Erinsborough. Susan also began giving piano lessons again, having previously tutored amateur pianists in her old neighbourhood. However, Susan's plan prompted Malcolm and Libby to call a family meeting to have a vote on whether or not the piano lessons should be allowed, with Mal and Libby claiming the lessons would interrupt their study. But Billy backed out of voting against the lessons when Susan's first student turned out to be Leanne 'Packo' Packington, who he had a massive crush on. And much to the disgust of Mal and Libby, Karl ultimately decreed that Susan could continue with her lessons.

Susan was shocked when Karl suggested that they have another baby, and initially tried to laugh off his idea. But as it became apparent to Susan that Karl wasn't going to change his mind, she was forced to tell Karl that she didn't want to have any more children since for the first time in 18 years she was enjoying a life outside the household through her involvement with the drama society and running the Coffee Shop while Annalise Hartman was travelling overseas. Susan also planned to return to teaching and having another child would hold her back even further. Karl's plans were definitively quashed when Susan was offered a teaching position at Erinsborough High School, and she accepted. The kids were at first opposed to the idea of having their mum teaching at their school. But Susan's approachable and open manner made her a hit with students, and the Kennedy kids consequently found having Susan at Erinsborough High wasn't nearly as bad as they had thought. Meanwhile, Karl continued to put pressure on Susan to have another child, and she finally agreed to the idea - but only if Karl was prepared to give up work and raise the baby himself. Karl dismissed the idea as ridiculous, causing massive friction between the couple. The kids soon tired of the bickering and tension between their parents, and pleaded with them to sort things out. Karl extended the olive branch on Susan's birthday by presenting her with a portrait of Mal, Libby and Billy, which he had specially commissioned their next door neighbour Helen Daniels to paint.

Another argument erupted when Karl found a magazine on relationships that Philip Martin had given to Susan to help her and Karl with their current problems, leading him to accuse Susan of discussing their personal problems with the neighbours. Luckily, a family afternoon by the river to celebrate Susan's birthday helped Karl and Susan put their differences behind them. And Karl told Susan that he no longer felt the need to have another baby since the day he had spent with her and the kids made him realise they were all the family he needed.

That family proved problematic to Susan, however, on various occasions. Billy was caught smoking, and Susan was so furious with him that she made him smoke in front of her in an attempt at proving to him how unglamorous it was. But her plan backfired when Billy suffered an asthma attack, and after Karl tended to Billy, Susan blamed herself for causing the attack. Mal, meanwhile, caused Karl and Susan no end of problems when he started seeing Danni Stark and announced his plans to move in with her. And Libby gave her parents cause for concern when she fell in love with university student Luke Handley. However, if Susan thought she had problems with her own children, the arrival of the Devine children sent the Kennedy household into complete chaos. Justin and Therese were the two tearaway children of Susan's old neighbour, Carmel Devine and they had been left in Susan's care after Carmel arrived on her doorstep out of the blue announcing she was going away with her new boyfriend for a few days. Susan and Karl faced plenty of headaches while Justin and Therese stayed - with Susan coming home to find Justin and Billy wrestling on the living room floor and Therese and Hannah Martin prancing about in her clothes and make-up.

Always keen to encourage her students to try new things, Susan started up a school magazine, and received an enthusiastic response towards it. Packo became the editor, while Danni and Mal volunteered to look after the photography, and Libby decided to try her hand at something different with feature writing. But Libby was furious when Susan took out Brett Stark's article on greyhound racing and Packo's list of the 10 spunkiest teacher's from the magazine. Susan tried to explain to her irate daughter that although it was supposed to be a student's magazine, they were still bound by school regulations and procedures. Libby decided to defy her mother's decisions, and she and Mal started distributing copies of the banned articles to each student around the school. But Libby's actions caused major problems for Susan, especially when the principal Anne Teschendorff called an emergency meeting about the situation, and threatened Libby with expulsion. At first Libby vowed to fight Miss Teschendorff's stance, but when she realised she was placing Susan in a very difficult position at school, she agreed to print an apology in the next issue of the magazine, and apologised to Susan. Susan faced more problems at the school when she mistakenly accused Mal of cheating in an English test, and was forced to make a public apology to her son in front of the class after Danni confessed she had been the cheater.

When Brett Stark won a trip to Kenya as part of a World Vision essay competition, Susan was thrilled when the teacher that was due to chaperone Brett for the trip had to pull out and she was asked to take her place instead. The trip to Kenya proved to be a life-changing one for both Susan and Brett. As well as seeing first-hand how poverty-stricken many of the children were in the schools they visited, Susan made a new friend in Rachael, their guide, and some painful memories were re-awoken in Susan after spending one night with Rachel tenderly nursing her sick mother. When Susan went for a walk on her own the next day, she had a flashback to 1973 and saw herself visiting her mother, Grace's grave a few weeks after her death. Reliving the moment had such an impact on Susan that she rushed back to Rachel to tell her she wanted to sponsor an African child. Brett noticed a change in Susan's mood on their final night in Africa, and Brett was confused when Susan dragged him out of bed at sunrise on their final day to take a walk with her. When they reached a secluded spot, Susan stunned Brett by confessing that she had killed her mother, by helping her to die when she was on her deathbed. Brett was stunned by Susan's revelation of euthanasia, and even more so, when Susan revealed that she had never told anyone else about what she had done until that point - not even Karl. Brett remained speechless, as a tearful Susan told him all about how her mother had made her promise to keep it to herself all these years, and she admitted that she only seemed able to forgive her mum now that she had finally shared her secret with someone else.

Susan was profoundly changed by the trip to Africa, but upon her return to Erinsborough, she also noticed a change in Karl. While she had been away, Karl had become close to a terminally ill patient, Kate Cornwall, and on hearing of her death, Karl became depressed and distant from Susan. Susan confronted Karl about his feelings for Kate, and he infuriated her by dismissing her as being unable to understand how he was feeling at the death of a patient. Susan exploded in anger and blurted out that she had helped her mother to die. Karl was stunned by Susan's sudden revelation after all the years they had known each other and was confused as to why Susan had never told him. Susan revealed that on top of her mum making her promise not to tell anyone, she also didn't think Karl would approve on account of his medical ethics. As a dumbfounded Karl tried to deal with the revelations from his wife, he was disgusted when Susan admitted that she had shared her secret with Brett in Africa. Before leaving for the funeral in Cairns, Susan was stunned when Karl revealed that he had felt something for Kate, and when he returned a few days later, she was further upset by his failure to realise it was Valentine's Day. After a blazing argument erupted between the pair, Susan stormed off to Chez Chez, and it was only when Karl followed her down, that he opened up to her for the first time about Kate. After Karl admitted that he had feelings for Kate, he promised Susan that he would never want anything other than her and the children, and she agreed to forgive him and put the incident behind them.

The Kennedy house became fuller when Billy's best mate, Jarrod 'Toadfish' Rebecchi moved in after his family left Erinsborough to run a roadhouse up north. Karl was hesitant to take Toadie in, but Susan appreciated how much Toadie wanted to stay in Erinsborough with his family and friends, and she convinced Karl to let him stay. In time, Toadie became a surrogate son to Susan and Karl, and helped fill the gap left around the house after Malcolm left home to travel through Europe with his girlfriend, Catherine O'Brien.

Susan was delighted when the Department of Education offered her the position of principal at a school in Wangaratta, and although it meant leaving Karl and the kids behind during the week, Susan jumped at the chance of taking the job. She even made a new friend in Kim Howard, a teacher at the school, who shared the house Susan was renting in the town, although she was initially surprised to discover Kim was male. After a few months of commuting between Erinsborough and Wangaratta, Susan was thrilled when she landed the principal's job at Erinsborough High, and she returned to her family full-time. However, while Susan had been away, Karl had fallen for his receptionist, Sarah Beaumont, and the pair had shared an illicit kiss one afternoon at the surgery. Susan, however, was completely unaware of the relationship between Karl and Sarah, and even foolishly tried to set Sarah up with Kim for a time. It wasn't until several months later on the morning of the wedding of Susan's good friends Ruth Wilkinson and Philip Martin that Susan discovered Karl's secret. Toadie, who had since moved into No. 30 to lodge with Sarah and consequently became privy to her feelings for Karl, had told Billy after mistakenly thinking Karl and Sarah had spent the night together. Billy in turn told Susan and after she initially refused to believe what her son was telling her, Susan's world started to crumble around her as the reality sunk in.

After the wedding, Karl was confronted by Susan back at the Kennedy house, where he was forced to admit that he and Sarah had kissed. His attempt at making Susan see how meaningless it was by explaining that it had happened months before only served to infuriate Susan even further - and she slapped Karl across the face before throwing him out of the house.

It took many months for Susan to forgive Karl for what happened, but after they spent the night together in the countryside during a search for Libby, who had gone missing, Susan invited Karl to move back in and they began to work on reconciling their marriage. The continuous presence of Sarah next door added to Susan's discomfort, however, and it was soon evident to Karl and Susan that things had irrevocably changed between them. An awkward moment occurred when Susan accidentally knocked Sarah's pet dog, Bob, down when he ran out into the middle of Ramsay Street, and Susan was forced to call over to No. 30 to tell Sarah what happened. Further uncomfortable situations developed when Sarah showed up at a surprise wedding anniversary party the Kennedy kids had thrown for Karl and Susan, and when Sarah bought the exact same outfit as Susan and Susan caught her being kissed by Karl when he mistook Sarah for Susan from behind. Susan greeted Sarah's engagement to Dr. Peter Hannay and plans to leave Erinsborough for the Netherlands with huge relief, and even agreed to attend the wedding ceremony with Karl, Libby and Billy, to firmly put Sarah in the past and move on. But in the days and weeks following Sarah's departure for Holland, Susan realised that Sarah still cast a long shadow over her marriage to Karl, and she started seeing a counsellor in the hope of dealing with her problems.

A letter from Sarah thanking Karl for his help on the day of her wedding - he had been forced to drive her to the church after a last minute hitch - made Susan feel even more uncomfortable, and when Karl went to Sydney for a medical conference, Susan found herself falling for her old flame from university, Martin Chester. Martin was in Erinsborough on business, but stuck around after realising Susan and Karl's marriage was on the rocks. Susan kissed Martin, but revealed that she wasn't prepared to give up on her marriage, and told him she couldn't see him anymore. After confessing her feelings for Martin to Karl, Karl agreed to see Susan's counsellor with her in a final attempt at salvaging the marriage. The heavy counselling sessions enabled Susan and Karl to get everything off their chests, and succeeded in getting the couple's marriage back on track at last.

It was with great sadness that Susan bid farewell to Billy when he moved to Queensland to work as an apprentice cabinet maker. His departure had come soon after Susan's best friend, Ruth, had also left Erinsborough for Darwin with Philip and Hannah, and with Libby engaged to Drew Kirk, Susan was finding herself having to let go of a lot of the people she was close to. Luckily, the Scully family - who moved into the old Robinson/Martin house next door to the Kennedys - provided both Susan and Libby with two new close friends, in the form of Scully mum Lyn and eldest daughter Steph. However, nothing prepared Susan and Karl for the shock they received when Libby was involved in a bad motorbike accident with Steph and they almost lost their only daughter. Despite making a full recovery, the accident had sadly left Libby with a slim chance of ever carrying a baby to full term, and Susan and Karl were forced to break the devastating news to their daughter. Libby took the news very badly, and even broke off her engagement to Drew, feeling it was unfair to go through with the marriage if she couldn't provide him with children. Luckily, Libby eventually came to her senses and got back together with Drew. The couple married soon after, much to the delight of both Susan and Karl, who had come to consider Drew as a son.

Susan's work as a teacher had often brought her into contact with troubled students. She helped out various troubled teens over the years, including Blair and Stacey Griffiths, Melissa Drenth and Tad Reeves. But when she took Jess Fielding under her wing, Susan had no idea that the girl would almost ruin her career. Jess came from a wealthy family who had recently moved to the area, and Susan innocently offered Jess extra help with her studies as she settled into Erinsborough High. But Jess had no interest in Susan's offer of help, and accused her of preaching to her out of school hours after she offered her and Tad help with an assignment at the Coffee Shop. And after finding graffiti all over the school corridor, and more seriously, receiving a bomb scare at the school, Susan began to suspect Jess of waging some sort of hate campaign against her - although it was later discovered that Colin Rogers had been the student responsible for the bomb scare. Susan's difficulties with Jess continued, however. When Susan gave Jess a C+ in her assignment, the troublesome student demanded an explanation from Susan in front of the class. Susan waited until after class to discuss the matter further with Jess, but a tense and heated argument erupted in which a bitter Jess accused Susan of being disappointed that it hadn't been her who made the bomb. Jess finally lashed out at Susan in a violent rage, and hit her. But as Susan went to defend herself, Jess fell to the floor.

Rumours of Susan's clash with Jess quickly spread round the school and Susan was upset to find Year 12 students passing a note round the class about her. Matters were complicated further when Jess' mother threatened to report Susan to the Department of Education, and Susan revealed to Karl that she was thinking of resigning as principal. Karl persuaded her to stay on, since she hadn't done anything wrong in the first place - and Susan bravely faced a Board of Enquiry established by the Department to investigate the incident. However, Susan faced further upset when the board suspended her pending a wider investigation into the incident with Jess. Just as Susan was starting to lose faith in the system, Jess arrived on her doorstep with a copy of a letter she had sent to the Department outlining what really happened in the assault incident. It transpired that Tad - who had come to look on Susan as a surrogate mother of sorts after all the help and support she had given him since he arrived in Erinsborough - had pressured Jess into telling the truth about what had happened, and Susan was thrilled to finally put the matter behind her in time to fly to London with Karl and Libby for Mal and Catherine's wedding.

A new teacher at Erinsborough High led to conflict for Susan upon her return. Evan Hancock had moved into No. 32 Ramsay Street while the Kennedys were in England, and he immediately clashed with Susan at the school when he unwittingly gave some Year 10 students permission to attend a protest rally at Waratah Creek. Susan had had to face the angry wrath of the parents of the students involved - most notably, Joe Scully, who was furious with Susan for giving his daughter, Michelle, detention for skipping school to attend the rally. A tangled feud erupted between Susan, Joe and Evan as a result, and it fell to their spouses to organise a tennis match to attempt to heal the rift. Susan was initially reluctant to participate, insisting she wanted to keep her professional and home life separate, but after realising she would be playing against Evan in the tournament, Susan jumped at the chance, such was her annoyance with him.

Although the tennis match went some way to mend fences between the three families, the tension between Susan and Evan remained. It resurfaced on several occasions - such as when Susan accused Evan of being overprotective of his son, Leo, by accusing a fellow teacher of bullying him, and when Susan suspected Evan of trying to oust her as principal of Erinsborough High in the wake of an article he wrote for The Chronicle condemning the school's bullying problem. And they were at loggerheads again when Libby wrote an article about a visit the Hancocks received from the social services, and Evan accused Susan of leaking the story to her daughter. Their feud eventually came to an end, however, when Evan spearheaded a campaign to keep Susan at Erinsborough High after she started to think about quitting. Evan felt partly responsible for her decision due to his letter criticising the school, and threw himself into contacting past students to sign a petition urging Susan to stay on as principal. His plan worked, and Susan thanked Evan afterwards for his support and kindness.

When Libby discovered she was pregnant, Susan and Karl were extremely worried about her safety, but on seeing her determination to go through with the pregnancy, despite the dangers, they supported her and Drew. As Susan and Libby took a walk by Lassiter's Lake one afternoon, Libby told Susan she could instinctively feel that everything would go okay, and Susan started to look forward to becoming a grandmother. Throughout the pregnancy, Susan became a regular visitor to Libby and Drew's flat, helping out wherever she could. But Libby and Drew began to feel suffocated by the constant interference from Susan, and Drew's mother Rose, and decided they would have to tell their mothers to give them some space. Drew left Libby alone at the flat one evening so that she could broach the subject with her, but after speaking to Harold Bishop down at the Coffee Shop, Drew had second thoughts about their decision to talk to Susan and Rose after Harold pointed out the difference between interference and genuine love and support. Drew rushed home to stop Libby but was too late, and when he arrived at the flat, Susan was in tears and told them she was sorry for being so interfering, insisting it was only because she loved them.

Drew and Libby, both feeling terrible, tried to make Susan feel better and take back what they had said, but Susan left, promising not to bother them anymore. After a few days of awkwardness, Susan apologised to Libby for her interference, but Libby in turn apologised to Susan for the things she had said, insisting she was welcome around at any time. A few months later, Libby gave birth to baby Ben, and although she almost lost her life just after the delivery, she survived the ordeal, much to the relief of Susan and Karl.

Susan's favourite nephew Darcy Tyler - the son of her eldest sister Carmel - caused major problems for Karl and Susan shortly after Karl took him on as a partner in the surgery. Darcy was plotting to oust Karl from the practice and sell the business to Total Cover Health, a massive super clinic chain, and he undertook a skilled and lengthy campaign to sell the surgery out from under Karl and Susan. However, he was forced to tell Susan and Karl about his activities when Dee discovered his plans, and threatened to tell the Kennedys. Karl was furious with Darcy over his treachery, but Susan refused to believe that Darcy had meant them any harm, and after Darcy assured Susan that he had never solicited Total Cover, Susan tried to persuade Karl to consider the offer. Karl ultimately decided not to sell, and offered to buy back Darcy's half of the practice. However, he was shocked when Darcy insisted he would only sell his half for $800,000, since Total Cover were offering $1.6 million for the surgery, meaning Karl was forced to sell out since he would never afford to buy Darcy out. When Dee told Karl that Darcy had been planning the takeover with Total Cover for months as opposed to weeks, as he had told the Kennedys, Susan's eyes were finally opened up and she realised how deceitful and scheming her nephew had been. Susan angrily confronted Darcy about his behaviour, reminding him of how she had always been more of a big sister to him as he grew up rather than an aunt but Darcy remained unrepentant, insisting that he had courted Total Cover for her and Karl as much as for himself. Karl, meanwhile, was furious with Susan for taking so long to realise Darcy had been betraying them, and she was forced to apologise for not believing Karl's doubts about her nephew sooner. Karl and Susan were both disgusted by Darcy's display of greed and self-indulgence when he bought a brand new Porsche on the day the contracts were to be signed for the take-over of the surgery, and Susan tried once more to get through to Darcy, but with no success. But much to Darcy's shock, Total Cover pulled out of the sale at the last minute, and he was forced to settle for Karl's original offer of buying him out for $10,000. However, after Darcy saved Karl's life by pulling him from a collapsed building the doctors had come across on their way to dissolve their partnership, Karl recognised that Darcy still had some decency in him, and after Susan persuaded Darcy to apologise to Karl unconditionally for his recent behaviour, Karl agreed to give the partnership one more chance.

The insecurities that Karl's affair with Sarah had caused Susan resurfaced when Karl and Darcy hired a sexy new receptionist, Serena Lucas, at the surgery. Susan's fears began whilst getting her hair cut at Lyn Scully's hair salon and overheard Serena talking about how cute her new boss was - although Serena had actually been referring to Darcy. Susan's suspicions increased when she popped by the surgery at lunchtime and Karl was too busy to have lunch with her. The smell of perfume from Karl's jacket didn't help matters either, despite Karl complaining about Serena's tendency to spray her perfume all around the surgery. The final straw came for Susan when Karl told her he couldn't have lunch with her another day because he had to fill in for a doctor at the hospital, and Susan began to seriously think history was repeating itself and Karl was having an affair with his receptionist. She finally confronted Karl about her suspicions and Karl was shocked that Susan had even thought such a thing. After assuring her that he would never put her through anything like what happened with Sarah again, Susan apologised for ever doubting him.

Susan's relationship with her sister Liz had always been wrought with friction. Liz had moved away from the family home when their mother was dying, and Susan had never forgiven Liz for not being around when Grace died. The bad feeling between the sisters culminated one Christmas when Liz accused Susan of getting their mother to change her will in Susan's favour, and Susan was so hurt by Liz's accusations she never spoke to her again. That was until Liz unexpectedly arrived on the Kennedy doorstep years later, and apologised to Susan for the unfair accusations she had made all those years before. But just as Susan was starting to think that perhaps Liz was beginning to soften, Liz started unwittingly insulting her by referring to Billy as a dunce in reference to his dyslexia and bringing up Karl's affair with Sarah. And Susan was stunned when Liz revealed that the real reason she had come to see her was because she had been offered a job in Europe for six months at a Swedish embassy and she wanted Susan and Karl to look after her 15 year-old daughter Elly. Susan was reluctant to agree to the idea, and told Liz she would need to talk things over with Karl first. Karl refused to take Elly in immediately, however, especially after hearing she had become a tearaway and was recently expelled from school for smoking dope. But Liz had failed to wait for Karl and Susan's answer, and went on to Sweden anyway, before calling to tell them that Elly would be arriving in Erinsborough in a few days. With no choice but to take Elly in, Susan began making preparations for her arrival but was stunned when Elly was escorted to the Kennedy house by two police officers who had suspected her of being about to graffiti a wall. After the police had gone and Elly was cleared of suspicion, Susan welcomed her to the household but realised she would have her hands full with Elly after some cheeky comments and an announcement that she was only staying for two weeks until she could join her mother.

Susan and Karl quickly realised that Liz had obviously misled Elly into thinking she was only staying with the Kennedys for two weeks, as opposed to six months, and they were forced to break the news to Elly themselves. Elly refused to believe that her mum had lied to her, and rebelled against Susan and Karl's authority, sneaking out to all night raves and causing trouble at school. Elly eventually made plans to fly to Sweden herself, and Susan raced to the airport to try and stop Elly leaving on the flight, but by the time she got there, she had boarded the flight. Susan went to airport security and after introducing herself as Elly's legal guardian, demanded that Elly be taken off the plane. Elly was taken off the flight and brought to the security office, where she insisted that Susan was only her aunt and not her legal guardian. The airport security called Liz in Stockholm, who confirmed that Susan was Elly's guardian, and Elly was devastated when Liz told her she was too busy settling into the job to care for her just yet. A deflated Elly reluctantly went home with Susan, and later apologised for causing her so much distress, and Susan assured Elly that she wanted her to feel totally at home within the family. Elly's trust in Susan increased as she began to accept her living arrangements, and when she overheard Susan fiercely defending her to Joe Scully, Elly was so touched that she bought her some flowers to say thank you. By the time Elly eventually joined Liz in Sweden, she had become very close to both Susan and Karl, and was comforted by the fact that there would always be a home for her with them in Ramsay Street.

Only weeks after returning from a teaching conference in New Zealand, Susan's life changed forever when she slipped on some spilt milk and developed retrograde amnesia, which meant she lost the last 30 years of her memory. The nightmare began when Susan woke up the morning after the fall remembering nothing of her marriage, children or life in Erinsborough, and she fled the Kennedy house in terror. Stephanie Scully saw her in the middle of Ramsay Street acting strangely, and called Karl to tell him to hurry over. When Karl got to Susan, she ran away thinking he was going to hurt her, and it was only when Libby arrived on the scene that Susan felt some sort of recognition, due to Libby's resemblance to Carmel, and she agreed to go to the hospital to be checked out. Karl and Libby were horrified when Susan started claiming she was 16 years old and the year was 1972, and when Darcy introduced himself to her, she insisted he couldn't be Darcy because her nephew was only three years old. As Karl and Libby tried to explain to Susan that she was actually a 46-year-old mother of three, emotions ran high, and Susan was frightened and upset by their attempts at re-jogging her memory. Once she was alone, Susan ran out of the hospital, in search of her parents and more familiar surroundings. But after finding herself at a '70s themed dance at Erinsborough High, Susan was further confused when the students all greeted her as 'Mrs. K', and she finally realised that something was wrong with her when she saw her reflection in a mirror.

Susan was then faced with several months of counselling with Dr. Peta Hadlock, designed to try and regain her memory, but the main problem to start with was that Susan had no desire to remember her marriage of life with Karl. In fact, Susan didn't even like Karl, and hated being in his company. All she wanted was to be a 16 year-old schoolgirl, go to Led Zeppelin concerts and track down her childhood sweetheart Craig Benson. After achieving the latter aim, Susan left Erinsborough to visit Craig at his farm, but she failed to tell anyone of her plans, and her family had no idea where she had gone. Susan was missing for three weeks, during which time the police even considered her to have been murdered and briefly suspected Karl of committing the crime. Luckily, Susan turned up alive and well at the Kennedy house but Karl was less than pleased that she had Craig Benson with her. It turned out that Susan had successfully got in touch with Craig andexplained everything that had happened to her, before Craig agreed to let her stay with him for a few weeks. Susan had returned to Erinsborough at Craig's urging, and made it very clear she didn't want to regain her old life by telling Karl she wanted to leave Erinsborough permanently and go back to the country with Craig. Craig, however, felt more and more uncomfortable with the part he had begun to play in the crisis, and eventually told Susan that he was returning to the country without her, pleading with her to give her family a chance.

Reluctantly, Susan stayed behind, but remained cold towards Karl. Drew became a tower of support for her, however, and tried to help her remember her past by filling her in on her family, friends and life in Erinsborough. Susan finally remembered something when she experienced a flashback to wiping a blackboard with a duster. Although it was small, simple memory, it gave the Kennedys enormous hope that Susan was on the road to recovery, and even Susan herself was thrilled by the flashback. More followed - including one of Libby as a child, and one of Drew holding Ben in the hospital.

At the same time, Susan was slowly starting to warm to Karl more, and found a whole new appreciation for Karl's musical abilities after uncovering some old tapes of his uni band, The Right Prescription. Their relationship had advanced as far as a dinner invitation - as a couple - to the Scullys when Susan experienced a more painful flashback and the progress she and Karl had made was severely halted. Susan had remembered the slap she had given Karl upon discovering his affair with Sarah, and after explaining the memory of hitting Karl to him, Karl was forced to tell Susan all about the situation with Sarah. Susan was furious that Karl had opted to leave Sarah out of all the things he and the family had been telling her over the weeks to help her regain her memory, and she insisted that she didn't want to hear only good things. The memory also renewed Susan's distrust of Karl and she came to the conclusion that the best thing for her to do would be to start her life afresh and divorce Karl. Karl desperately tried to talk Susan out of her decision, pointing out that her memory could return at any time, but she was determined to start anew, and began seeking legal advice. After Toadie refused to give her any advice on divorce because he didn't agree with what she was doing, Susan hired shady lawyer Tim Collins. He tried to convince Susan to seek half of the house from Karl, even though Susan admitted she felt awkward staking a claim on the property. Karl, meanwhile, almost gave up hope of restoring his life completely, while Libby was devastated at the prospect of her parents divorcing, and was hurt when Susan leased a flat even further away from her on Bennett Street.

A turnaround in Susan's behaviour occurred when Susan experienced another flashback while at the Kennedy house collecting some of her belongings one evening. This time, it was a pleasurable experience, as Susan remembered her first time with Karl. Karl actually walked in on Susan just as she was experiencing the flashback, and heard her say that she loved him. Susan played the proclamation down, but Karl urged her to see Peta Hadlock about the memory the next day. However, Karl was devastated when Susan told him it was a memory of being in love with him, and she didn't feel in love with him anymore. Nonetheless, the relationship between Susan and Karl began to improve in the wake of the flashback, and Susan even offered to accompany Karl to the annual medical ball, where they grew closer.

Tragedy struck the family in the midst of the amnesia crisis when Drew was killed after falling from a horse during a trip to his hometown of Oakey. Libby was devastated by the death of her beloved husband, and Susan struggled to find a role for herself in her daughter's grieving process. After returning to Erinsborough following the funeral, Susan continued to try and make herself useful to Libby, and found caring for Ben was the best she could do for her daughter. Desperate to be of some support to Libby, Susan offered to move in with her and Ben. Libby initially turned down her mother's offer, insisting that she was capable of looking after things for herself. When Susan tried to persuade her some more, Libby bluntly told her that she didn't need her, but needed her husband, and Susan left, feeling awkward about her place in Libby's life again. However, Libby realised she had been too harsh on Susan, and accepted the offer, much to the delight of Susan. The bond between the two grew as a result, and they even both agreed to study teaching together at Eden Hills University.

Susan also grew much closer to Karl in the wake of Drew's death, and the couple finally kissed one night over dinner. They began dating each other and Susan started to rediscover the feelings she had for Karl. Susan eventually agreed to move back into No. 28 with Karl, and the family were reunited under one roof when Libby and Ben also moved in. When Karl came across Susan looking through their wedding album one afternoon, he asked her to marry him again and Susan agreed. With their wedding anniversary approaching, Karl suggested they renew their vows on the same day, and preparations were stepped up a gear to be ready in time. After some last minute dramas including problems with the wedding dress Lyn had designed for Susan, Karl and Susan renewed their vows in a touching ceremony at Lassiter's. And the return of Susan's memory midway through the vows proved to be the icing on the cake for the couple after many months of drama.

However, a ghost from the past was quick to come back to haunt the 'newlyweds' when Sarah phoned from England moments after Karl carried Susan across the threshold on the way home from the wedding reception. Susan was in the bedroom when Karl answered, and a shocked Karl hung up on Sarah before she could explain why she was calling and told Susan it had been a wrong number. But Sarah called back a while later, and this time Susan answered the phone. Susan was stunned to hear Sarah on the other end of the phone and refused to put Karl on, telling Sarah he wasn't home. Karl scrambled to assure Susan he had no idea why Sarah was calling him, and apologised for lying beforehand about who had called. Their honeymoon period quickly soured, Susan told Karl to phone Sarah back so that they could find out what she wanted and get past it. There was relief all round when Karl discovered Sarah had simply been phoning for a reference from Karl, since she had split up with Peter and needed to return to the workforce. Feeling somewhat guilty for immediately coming down hard on Karl when Sarah called, Susan decided to try and make light of the situation by making some humorous adjustments to the reference Karl typed up for Sarah. Adding in references to a drink problem and poor time-keeping, Susan thought her jokes would assure Karl she didn't have a problem with him giving his former receptionist a reference. But Susan had planned on Karl reading over the reference one final time before he posted it. He didn't, and the reference was posted to Sarah in England complete with Susan's additions. Karl was furious with Susan for her actions, and although she felt awful, she insisted he call Sarah and explain the situation and not her. Luckily, Sarah saw the funny side to the joke, and sent several bags of manure to the Kennedy household a few days later to have her revenge.

Keen to return to work now that she was back to herself, Susan arranged to go back to Erinsborough High as VCE co-ordinator and English teacher. Although getting back into the classroom after such a prolonged absence proved difficult for Susan, it was working with the new principal, Candace Barkham, that proved to be the biggest problem for her. Candace was a very stern, no-nonsense headmistress, and had a very different approach to the students and the school than Susan did when she was principal. As a result, the pair clashed and a deep rift developed. Things came to head when Candace failed to give Libby a teaching job at Erinsborough High and Susan, convinced that it was down to Candace's dislike of her, angrily confronted her newfound arch-enemy. Matters were made worse for Susan when Karl struck up a friendship with Candace - something Susan couldn't understand since she failed to see any redeeming qualities in her. A heated confrontation ensued between the women when Karl invited Candace over to dinner one night, and by the end, Susan was forced to resign herself to simply agree to disagree with Candace and tolerate her as best she could. However, the underlying problem for Susan appeared to simply be that she was finding it difficult to adjust to someone else doing her job.

Susan was left all alone at the Kennedy house for a few weeks when Karl went to see his dying aunt Enid in New Jersey and Libby and Ben moved to the country where Libby had landed a temporary teaching post. So Susan was more than happy to let Lori Lee stay after she had been left in a wheelchair following an accident at the local swimming pool. Lori had been going out with the Scullys' son Jack, but after discovering he had been seeing Nina Tucker behind her back, Lori could no longer continue living with the Scullys and Susan invited her to stay at No. 28. Susan proved to be a huge source of support for Lori, both in helping her come to terms with her break-up with Jack and in aiding her recovery. And even after Lori regained the strength in her legs and the Kennedy house filled up again with the returns of Karl, Libby and Ben, Susan made it clear to Lori that she was welcome to make No. 28 a more permanent home.

A chain of events that would have serious ramifications for Susan and Karl’s marriage kicked off when Karl was charged with drink driving one afternoon when he had had one two many glasses of wine at lunch and drove his car afterwards. A defensive Karl took Susan up on a challenge she proposed whereby he would stay off alcohol for six months, but he found it far too difficult to stick to. However, rather than tell Susan the truth, Karl began to drink behind her back. Added to this deception was the arrival of Isabelle Hoyland in Erinsborough. Izzy was flirty, seductive, confident and extremely attractive, and wasted no time in making her presence felt around Ramsay Street, having moved in with her brother Max and his kids at No.32. Susan took an immediate dislike to her; quickly dubbing her ‘Jezebel’, but Karl was instantly smitten. And with Izzy working at the Coffee Shop as well as living two doors down, she was to become a regular feature in the lives of Karl and Susan. Susan proved herself to be still insecure about her husband’s fidelity when she began to suspect Karl of having an affair with Izzy. Her suspicions arose when Karl skipped a medical conference to make chocolates with Izzy at the Coffee Shop all day, and then lied to Susan about his whereabouts. And when Karl began to use breath freshener a lot, and arrive home at odd hours, Susan - unaware that this was due to his secret drinking - was sure he was seeing someone else. She finally confronted Karl when an anonymous note was posted under the Kennedys door asking her if she knew what her husband was up to. However, it quickly emerged that the note had come from Harold’s granddaughter Sky, who had suspected Karl and Izzy were seeing each other after overhearing Izzy calling someone ‘Doctor Love’ on the phone. Susan was forced to apologise to both Karl and Izzy when the truth about Sky was uncovered, although a dark cloud of suspicion continued to plague Susan that Karl was up to something he shouldn’t have been.

Susan was delighted when Karl whisked her off for a weekend retreat to their old hometown of Greendale, and it seemed that whatever had been bothering Karl in recent weeks had faded away. But Karl was soon plagued with a slight depression and dissatisfaction with his life after being reminded how great things were in Greendale and meeting up with the now very successful GP who had taken over his old practice. And still unable to avoid having a drink, Karl spent a few hours in the local tavern having a few glasses of wine while Susan thought he was out having a jog. And unbeknownst to Susan, Karl had bumped into Izzy in the pub, herself away on a weekend with her young lover Jack Scully, and he confided in Izzy about his marital problems with Susan.

Karl’s drinking problem was finally uncovered by Susan when she came home unexpectedly one night just as Karl had finished a whole bottle of red wine. What bothered Susan most about the discovery that Karl was drinking was the fact that he felt he couldn’t simply be honest with her and tell her he fancied a drink of wine. But after Karl assured Susan that it was the first time he had ‘fallen off the wagon’ since he had given up drink, she calmed down, and Karl felt hugely relieved that he could now enjoy a glass of wine with Susan again. But when Jack bumped into Susan in the Coffee Shop and mentioned he had seen Karl in the pub in Greendale, Susan was shocked. She stormed home to confront Karl about his lies, and a flustered Karl knocked over the decanter of scotch that rested on the sideboard in the midst of the argument. This innocent accident revealed to Susan the extent of Karl’s problem when she realised the scotch that had spilled all over the floor wasn’t scotch at all - it was tea, which Karl had cunningly filled the decanter with after drinking all the scotch.

This revelation led to Susan really questioning what was going on with Karl, and she decided it would be best if they spent some time apart. A Kennedy family reunion had been planned in Adelaide, where Libby had recently relocated to after getting a full-time teaching post, but Susan and Karl that decided that Susan should go alone. The Kennedy kids could clearly see that all was not well with Susan when she got to Adelaide, and the story that she and Karl had concocted about him having to stay behind to treat a dying patient simply didn’t add up. Malcolm was so suspicious that he stopped off in Erinsborough en route back to London in the hope of getting to the bottom of his parents’ marital issues. Mal ended up bringing Susan and Karl together when he accidentally ran over Audrey, Libby’s pet terrier, and he was thrilled that the ordeal brought them closer as they fussed over Audrey. But just after Mal returned to London, Karl announced to a shocked Susan that he hadn’t missed her over the holidays and had actually enjoyed the space and time to himself. And he stunned Susan by telling her he wanted a trial separation.

Susan wasn’t going to give up on her marriage after all that she and Karl had been through and suggested they attend counselling. Karl reluctantly agreed, although he did take to sleeping in the spare room in the meantime. However, while Susan was full of enthusiasm about the sessions, Karl’s heart simply wasn’t in them and he began to try and avoid them as much as possible. Matters came to a head when Karl finally admitted at one of the sessions that he didn’t love Susan anymore. At her wits end, Susan took the drastic step of going to see Izzy – who she knew Karl had confided in for months – to ask her what she could do to salvage her marriage to Karl. Izzy simply told Susan that there was nothing left to save and Susan gave up, agreeing to a separation.

With Karl gone from the family home, Susan was left all alone at No.28 and despite the efforts of her neighbours to lift her spirits with casseroles and shoulders to cry on, Susan sunk into a depression. She also started to take her problems out on the kids at school, becoming snappy and bad tempered with them. It was only when Harold – who had become slightly tactless since suffering a stroke the previous Christmas – told her to dust herself off and get on with things that Susan started to take her first steps in moving on from Karl. She got Lyn to restyle her hair, opting for a much shorter ‘do and also bought herself a whole new wardrobe. Susan also took in a boarder, Sindi Watts, to combat her feelings of loneliness in the now empty Kennedy household. Sindi had dated Toadie the year before and was back on Ramsay Street to host the reality TV show Making Mansions, in which the Scullys were participating. She injected a much needed sense of fun and craziness into Susan’s life with her penchant for clothes, astrology and general kookiness, and the two became firm friends. Susan also opened her home to another trouble Rebecchi kid when Toadie’s 16-year-old cousin Scott ‘Stingray’ Timmins arrived in Erinsborough having ditched his old neighbourhood of Colac once and for all. Stingray, like Sindi, was full of energy – too much of it in fact. He was suffering from ADHD, and Susan took him under her wing by sorting out his diet and enrolling him at Erinsborough High. And she was determined to give him a proper home since Stingray’s father had walked out on the family and his mum wasn’t overly keen on being a proper parent to her six kids. With this in mind, Susan happily accepted responsibility for Stingray during his time in Erinsborough and he came to trust and rely on the woman he came to affectionately call ‘Suze’.

After a few dates with a man called Brent, Susan gradually regained confidence in the dating department and was encouraged to keep searching for Mr. Right by good friend and fellow Book Club member Liljana Bishop. When Susan and Liljana were out shopping one afternoon, Liljana pushed Susan to ask out a dashing man who caught Susan's eye in the supermarket. However, Susan was embarrassed when he politely declined, and felt even worse when she was introduced to him the following day by Lyn and it turned out that he was Joe's older brother Tom, a Catholic Priest. Luckily for Susan, Tom laughed off their initial encounter and as he settled into the neighbourhood, he and Susan became good friends. Their relationship took a further turn when they attended an Amnesty International conference together and were forced to share a guesthouse together for the night. Tom was suffering from a fever, not helped by being caught in torrential rain that day, and Susan was forced to nurse him through the night. But she was taken aback when Tom started rambling in his sleep about his doubts over his vocation and his feelings for Susan. Although Susan glossed over the incident, Tom was angry when he found out that she had confided in Lyn about what he had said, and he suggested they spend a bit of time apart. But Tom was on hand to comfort Susan when Karl dropped a bombshell on her by announcing that Izzy was pregnant and he was the father. Devastated at the cruellest betrayal of all by her husband, Susan broke down in front of the whole street as she angrily reacted to Karl's news by reminding him of his reluctance to have any more kids when she had wanted more a few years before. And knowing that there would never be any going back now, Susan served Karl with divorce papers. The one bright cloud on the horizon for Susan in the wake of Karl's revelation was the acknowledgement by Tom that he had fallen in love with her. With the stresses and revelations taking their toll, Susan fled to a country lodge for a few days break, but was followed there by Tom, who learnt her destination from Sindi. Tom again professed his love for Susan, and they gave into their passions and slept together.

But Susan and Tom faced the opposition of most of Erinsborough when news broke of their relationship. Lyn was particularly appalled by the news, and refused to speak to Susan, although part of her annoyance was due to the fact that Lyn had harboured feelings for Tom many years before and was a little jealous. Libby also disapproved of her mother's involvement with a man of the cloth, and the final straw came for Susan when Tom's housekeeper, Therese, announced that she had once enjoyed a relationship with him herself. However, Tom explained to Susan that he had never been in any way romantically involved with Therese, and suspected his housekeeper of simply being too close to him after so many years. Although Susan accepted Tom's explanation, she told him she couldn't continue with the relationship because it all felt wrong. But Tom responded by leaving the church in order to prove to Susan how much she meant to him and how serious he was about their relationship. Although things went smoothly for a few weeks, it gradually became clear to both Susan and Tom that they were from very different worlds and as Tom continued to turn to God and the church for answers to life's problems, she knew there was no long term future in their relationship. Tom agreed, and left Erinsborough to stay with his sick father in Bendigo.

Susan didn't have time to wonder what might have been with Tom for long, as Darcy re-entered her life when she received word that he wanted her to visit him in prison. Proving she was still unable to shut her nephew out completely, Susan agreed and was pleased to come face to face with a much more remorseful Darcy, who profusely apologised to her for everything he had put her and Karl through. However, Darcy left Susan with a lot of soul searching to do when he told her he was eligible for day release and needed a victim of one of his crimes to endorse him for it. Susan eventually agreed to be Darcy's sponsor, much to the dismay of Karl, who, in a move that suggested he still had feelings for Susan somewhere deep down inside, had visited Darcy in prison and warned him to stay away from "his" family. While Darcy's day release started off smoothly enough at the Coffee Shop with Susan, by the end of it, he had uncovered a secret that, if revealed, would have enormous consequences for Susan and Karl. While working as an orderly at Erinsborough Hospital, Darcy discovered that the dates for Izzy's pregnancy were actually a month ahead of what she was supposed to be, which ultimately meant that Karl could not be the father of her unborn baby. But when Darcy confronted Izzy about this in the car park stairwell, an argument erupted, which culminated in Darcy losing his balance and falling down a flight of stairs. Quick thinking Izzy planted her jewellery and cash on the unconscious Darcy and raced home to trash her flat to make it look like Darcy had returned to his old ways. After Darcy was found, he was rushed to hospital where he fell into a coma, and doctors broke the news to Susan that it was unlikely he would ever wake up again. While Karl was furious with Darcy for once again turning to burglary, Susan couldn't quite believe he did it again, and the involvement of Izzy in the incident, added to her doubts.

On top of the tension between Susan and Karl over Darcy, the countdown began to what looked increasingly like a nasty divorce. Although Karl had initially insisted that Susan retain the family home and live on at No.28, Izzy had other ideas and managed to persuade Karl to be less generous in the division of the couples' assets. But when Izzy nastily told Susan that she, Karl and the baby would be living at No.28, Susan was determined to prevent such an event ever occurring and hired the ever unscrupulous Tim Collins as her lawyer. Initial attempts at reaching a settlement through a mediation session ended in farce when Izzy eavesdropped outside and burst in demanding Karl stick up for himself and get more money. With mediation a failure, the divorce hearing had to be finalised in court, much to the dismay of Libby, who was becoming increasingly saddened by the bitter end to her parents' marriage. The courtroom drama got off to a tricky start for Susan when Tim was called away to Sydney, leaving Toadie to represent her in court – a position neither Susan nor Karl had ever wanted to put him in. And as the Kennedy's assets were listed off in the courtroom, Libby finally snapped at Izzy and broke down in tears – which finally made Susan and Karl take stock of what was going on. They both asked for a pause to proceedings and went off to a room to sort the settlement out privately. Both admitted they were ashamed at how silly they had let things get, and after sorting the division of assets out free of interference from lawyers or Izzy, they shared a bittersweet kiss, marking the end of almost thirty years of marriage. After the amicable settlement, Susan and Karl managed to become firm friends again, especially since they had started attending the same mature education classes together. And when Izzy suffered a miscarriage, Susan was on hand to comfort Karl and get him to pull himself together in the days that followed.

As much as Susan tried to move on, however, Izzy and Karl's relationship seemed to forever hang over her life like a cloud. Just as she was trying to get on with life as Susan Smith again, she was forced to deal with the news that Karl and Izzy were going to be married. And Lyn added to Susan's woe by delivering the shock revelation that Izzy actually didn't love Karl, which she had confessed to Jack. Susan agonised over whether or not she should tell Karl, but she eventually decided to stay out of it and let them get on with their lives. As it turned out, the wedding was a mess regardless. Gus Cleary, Izzy's ex-boyfriend and secret father of the child she had miscarried, showed up at Lassiter's just as Izzy had gotten into her wedding gown, and his presence sent her over the edge. Fleeing town, Izzy almost ran into Susan, and a stand-off erupted between the two women in the middle of the street as Susan urged her to keep going and leave the rest of Erinsborough in peace. Although Izzy did eventually return to Lassiter's, it was too late for the wedding. However, Karl was forgiving of her as always, and an incredulous Susan had to look on as they brazenly had a party in the pub that night anyway.

Susan opened up her home to another Rebecchi cousin when Stingray's older brother Dylan was released from juvenile detention and arrived in Erinsborough looking for a fresh start with his brother. Susan managed to persuade an initially sceptical Stingray that Dylan should be given a second chance, and she helped Dylan on his path to making something of himself by enrolling him at Erinsborough High to repeat Year 12. With plenty of room at No.28 now that Libby and Ben were living in Shepparton, Susan also took in Sindi's boyfriend Stuart Parker when he was blinded while saving Sindi from a fire at Lassiter's. But she gradually had the house to herself again when Sindi and Stuart moved in together at No.30 and Stingray and Dylan joined their larger than life mother Janelle who had moved in with Lyn next door.

Of course, Karl was never far away, and after a blistering row with Izzy one night, he arrived on Susan's doorstep to see if he could sleep on her sofa. Susan reluctantly agreed, and ended up having a great evening with Karl, laughing and joking about old times. But when Karl made a pass at her, Susan declined and suggested he leave. To get away from the stresses and complexities of his feelings for Izzy and Susan, Karl went to the country for the weekend but he suffered a massive heart attack as he was changing a tyre on his car. After calling the paramedics, Karl – believing he was minutes from death - called Susan to profess his love for her. A devastated Susan broke down as Karl told her how sorry he was for everything he had done and wished her every happiness in the future. By the time Karl regained consciousness again, he was in Erinsborough Hospital – with Susan by his bedside. But due to the domineering presence of Izzy, it was a few days before Susan got a chance to spend a moment alone with Karl. As Karl told her about his near death experience and the intense feelings of happiness and love he had felt as he suffered flashbacks to being back at home on Ramsay Street with Susan, waiting for the kids to arrive for dinner, he revealed that he had now realised what he wanted from Susan – to be the best of friends with her. Susan was relieved at Karl’s admission, and they agreed to be firm friends from that point on.

Susan pressed on with her life and found romance in the unlikeliest of places when she met Gary Evans at yoga class. However, what Susan didn't know was that Gary had offered Sindi money a few weeks previous to spend one night with him. The incident had led to Gary reassessing his life and he desperately wanted things to work out with Susan. But when Susan introduced him to Sindi, Sindi was horrified and secretly pressed Gary to call a halt to dating Susan. Gary refused, remaining steadfast in his determination to be a new man and make a serious go of things with Susan. But when Stuart and Sindi were discussing the situation and accidentally dialled through to Susan's voicemail as they talked, Susan heard everything when she listened back to her messages and told Gary to take a hike.

Continuing with her long tradition of befriending troubled Rebecchi kids, Susan was instantly charmed when she met the youngest Timmins, bookworm Bree. Although only 13, Bree loved to read and, unlike her brothers and older sister Janae, she was intelligent and smart too. However, Janelle grew jealous of Susan's friendship with Bree, and felt especially alienated by their love of literature. At a loss to know what to do, Janelle made a formal complaint to Susan, suggesting that the books she was giving Bree to read were unsuitable for a young teenager. Janelle further objected when Susan encouraged Bree to compete in the regional spelling bees, but Susan was confident that Bree could win a place in the finals. Janelle only showed an interest when she realised that Bree could win $15,000 if she won the national contest. When Bree learnt she would be competing in the national finals, Susan was touched when she asked her to accompany her in place of Janelle. But Susan recognised the need for Bree and her mother to spend some time together and stood aside to let Janelle go to Canberra with her.

After several months in a coma, Darcy took everyone by surprise by suddenly waking up one afternoon and Susan was immediately on hand to nurse him back to full health. Still refusing to believe that he had committed another crime before his 'accident', Susan enraged Karl by showing her support for her nephew while Karl blamed Darcy'ss awakening for sending Izzy into a state of edginess. But, of course, Izzy was worried that Darcy would reveal the truth about the baby's father as well as the fact that she had fabricated the story about being burgled by him. However, Darcy agreed to keep her secret in return for her giving him a glowing testimony when he appeared in court for the 'robbery', as well as $70,000 so he could start a new life away from Erinsborough. Once Darcy had been granted a 12 month good behaviour bond, he bid Erinsborough goodbye for good, although left Susan with a letter telling her everything about Izzy's lies. Appalled by what she read, Susan agonised over whether or not she should tell Karl the truth, but held back just in case Darcy had got it wrong.

But Susan had it confirmed when she was left alone at a hospital computer during a check-up and searched for Izzy's file on the hospital database. Once she found it, Susan realised that Darcy had been right – Izzy had gotten pregnant one month prior to becoming involved with Karl. A furious Susan opted to confront Izzy about the lies she had spun for so long and gave her 24 hours to confess all to Karl. After the deadline had passed, Susan paid Karl a visit to comfort him. But she was shocked to find Izzy was still in the flat, having told Karl one further lie – that she had been raped by Gus and that was the reason she had lied to him about being the baby's father. Susan was further taken aback when Karl directed his anger towards her instead of Izzy and lambasted her for landing Izzy with ultimatums and deadlines. But the truth won out a few days later when Karl overheard Izzy admitting to Max that she had lied about the rape in order to hold onto him, and a devastated and disgusted Karl washed his hands of her. Despite the way Karl had reacted to her, Susan was on hand to console him, but was stunned when Karl responded by asking Susan to accompany him on a trip to Europe which he had been planning to go on with Izzy. Susan made no bones about telling Karl that such an idea was ludicrous, and he later apologised to her for even suggesting it.

Just as Karl's new life had fallen apart, Susan was on the verge of starting a whole new chapter in her life. After a disastrous liaison with, somewhat ironically, Izzy's smooth-talking father Bobby – who three-timed Susan with Lyn and Janelle – Susan fell in love with bumbling university lecturer Alex Kinski. They met when Alex enrolled his children, Rachel and Zeke, at Erinsborough High and initially clashed when Alex demanded recently returned Erinsborough native Paul Robinson be sacked as a teacher on account of his dodgy business deals. Susan treaded carefully with Alex, conscious of the fact that Rachel and Zeke had been home schooled by their father since the death of their mother until they had joined Erinsborough High, and managed to assure Alex that Paul had mended his ways and that Rachel and Zeke were performing so well since their arrival, moving them might not be the best course of action for them. Alex trusted Susan's judgement, and they shared a drink together at The Scarlet Bar – only for Paul to be arrested in the middle of the bar. This led to Alex reconsidering his position, despite Susan and Paul both explaining to him afterwards that it had all been a misunderstanding, and he enrolled the children in Eden Hills Grammar. But after Rachel and Zeke protested and pleaded with Alex to let them stay on, he agreed and gave Susan his full vote of confidence.

Soon after, Alex asked Susan out on a date, and she accepted. However, things got off to a bumpy start when their dinner was interrupted by a panicked Rachel to tell Alex that Zeke had gone missing. It transpired that Zeke had fallen off a bicycle and Alex, Susan and Rachel were all relieved to find him at Erinsborough Hospital with no major injuries. A second attempt at a 'first date' was similarly disastrous when Susan invited Alex over for dinner and almost burned the kitchen down. They were then forced to eat pizza, but when Susan went to kiss Alex, he got up to leave and bumped her head, resulting in a bloody nose and black eye. They finally shared a kiss when they had a romantic picnic at Lassiter's Lake, but again the moment was interrupted by a disaster when Rachel and Zeke were trapped in a fire at the science lab. Stuart saved them both and they were taken to hospital for observation, before going back to Susan's that night. As it got late, Susan invited Alex to stay over, since the kids were settled and asleep. Alex agreed and they spent the night together.

Having fallen quickly and deeply in love, Susan was on cloud nine and it seemed nothing could spoil her new found happiness. But unbeknownst to her, Alex was diagnosed with Lymphoma and was told by Karl – who he didn't realise was Susan's ex-husband at that stage – that he had only six months to live. Retreating into a state of shock and despair, Alex stunned Susan by suddenly telling her he had met someone else and their relationship was over. Susan was completely taken aback by Alex's announcement, but was hugely relieved when he later told her he had foolishly made up the other woman as he had been afraid of committing to her. Before going on a camping trip with the kids, Alex proposed and gave Susan a few days to think things through.

Susan happily accepted the proposal when Alex came back and got down on one knee, and they became engaged. As Alex and the children began spending more and more time at No.28, Susan couldn't have been happier. But she was struck a major blow when Karl – having discovered that Susan was engaged to the patient he was treating for a fatal illness – broke the news to her that Alex was dying. Devastated, Susan was then faced with pretending she didn't know when Alex finally took the brave step of telling her himself. An initial state of denial eventually gave way to grief, and she was further devastated to learn that part of the reason Alex had proposed was to ensure that his children would have a mother when he died. Unable to handle this aspect of her relationship with Alex, Susan called off the engagement and Alex and the kids moved their stuff back home.

Swayed by protestations from Karl that Alex was a good man who had never meant to hurt her, Susan agreed to speak to him and while insisting that the engagement was off, she promised to support him and the children as a friend. But Susan struggled to contain her feelings for Alex, especially since the kids continued to apply pressure to both her and their father to sort out whatever had happened between them and get back together. When Alex was told by his specialist that an improvement in his condition meant that his life expectancy had increased by a few years, he rushed to Susan with the good news – and they gave into their passion and got back together. To celebrate their reunion, Susan and Alex joined several other Ramsay Street residents on board the joy flight that Paul had arranged to Tasmania to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Lassiter's. But tragedy struck when a bomb was planted on one of the engines, which exploded and sent the plane and passengers hurtling into the Bass Straits. Susan struggled to stay afloat as the harsh waters engulfed her – and in a twisted set of circumstances, it was Izzy she found herself with as the waves crashed around her. Susan helped Izzy to safety before being swept away herself, and as she failed to show up in the days that followed, Alex (who had survived the crash relatively unscathed), the children and Karl all feared the worst. But ever the fighter, Susan was found safe and well and transferred back to Erinsborough Hospital where she was greeted by her relieved new family – and a remnant of her old one, Karl, who had realised how much she meant to him when he thought he had lost her. Susan and Alex, meanwhile, resolved not to waste this second chance of happiness that they had both been given, especially since Susan had lost her good friend Liljana in the crash, and they got engaged once again.

But there was yet another secret Alex had kept from Susan. When Rachel started acting rebellious, Alex was greatly concerned about his daughter's behaviour – and after an argument one day, Rachel blurted out that she wouldn't turn out like Katya. Clueless as to who this Katya was, Susan was stunned when Alex revealed that Katya was actually his eldest daughter, who he had thrown out of home at the age of 16. Katya had gone off the rails following the death of her mother and Alex had had no contact with her in years. Susan initially felt a little uneasy about Alex's decision to keep the existence of Katya from her, but she eventually forgave him and even helped him set the wheels in motion to try and track her down.

The wedding plans were thrown into disarray, however, when Alex's health deteriorated once again and Karl broke the devastating news to him that the end was near. Faced with the prospect of only a few weeks left together, Susan and Alex brought the wedding date forward and finally told the kids that their father was dying. Although Zeke and Rachel were both inconsolable, their spirits were lifted slightly when they managed to find Katya and bring her to Ramsay Street for a reunion with Alex in his final hours. Katya and Karl agreed to be witnesses to Susan and a flailing Alex as they were married, and there was a moment of added poignancy to proceedings as Karl had to stand by and watch Susan marry Alex in the home they had once shared. Susan sat with Alex through the night as he lay dying on the couch, and just after he asked her to continue with their plans of going on honeymoon with the kids on the Trans-Siberian Railway, he passed away.

Susan's mourning was not easy given Alex's death had occurred in the midst of Christmas and only hours after she had become his wife. An added worry was Zeke's refusal to speak in the wake of his father's death, while Katya caused Susan most anxiety as she blamed her for dominating Alex in his final hours. Katya had wanted to let Alex know that she forgave him for throwing her out of home all those years before but she had never had the chance since he had died in Susan's arms. Katya's antagonism towards Susan continued when she discovered that Karl, who had been on hand in the days following Alex's death to help out, was Susan's ex-husband.

Susan, meanwhile, resolved to push ahead with Alex's final request for her to take Rachel and Zeke to Belarus for their honeymoon and the trip helped her get over her loss to some degree. Once back in Erinsborough, however, Susan was faced with the continuing problem of Zeke not speaking and Katya's increasing interference in how the kids' should be brought up. When Katya discovered that Karl would be counselling Zeke in the hope of getting him to talk again, she insisted on transferring Zeke to another doctor and accused Karl of wanting to use Zeke to get closer to Susan. Matters were made worse when Katya realised Karl had broken his medical oath to tell Susan about Alex's illness and this information made Katya's mind up – she was going to fight for custody of Rachel and Zeke. Shocked and upset by Katya's decision, Susan tried hard to resolve the matter with Katya but she wasn't for turning and before long, they were facing each other in mediation. But Katya played dirty and brought up several encounters in recent weeks which led her to believe Susan hadn't completely shut Karl out of her life. Furious at Katya's tactics, Susan asked Toadie to look into Katya's past so that she would have ammunition to throw back at her in the custody case. What Toadie found wasn't pretty, but Susan was reluctant to use the information that had been uncovered as she knew it wouldn't have been what Alex would have wanted. When Katya realised that Susan had had the chance to use the information against her and refrained, she was grateful to her for not making the mistakes she had made public. After a heart-to-heart, Susan realised that it would be best for the kids if they stayed with their sister and she gave up the custody fight.

With Rachel and Zeke gone to live with Katya, Susan found herself feeling very much alone rambling around the once full Kennedy household. Although the kids dropped in from time to time and she had cuppas with Lyn or shoulders to cry on for Stringray, Susan was frustrated with not having anyone to care for anymore. Even Karl had found a new love in the form of civil servant Jenny McKenna and she had moved into his flat with him. Gradually, Katya began to pick up on this and she started to feel sorry for her stepmother. Katya had also come to the realisation that she couldn't possibly hold down a full-time job as a nurse as well as single-handedly raise two teenagers so she asked Susan for help. Susan was naturally delighted and came to a solution which would benefit all concerned and Katya, Rachel and Zeke all moved into No.28 where Susan and Katya could both look after the kids.

As always, Karl was never far from Susan's life and when Susan and the girls began to worry that Zeke had no male role model in his life, Susan enlisted Karl to coach Zeke in football. It seemed that no matter what, Susan and Karl were always going to be brought back together in some form. As well as Karl's involvement with Zeke, the pair were asked by Steph and Max to be godparents to their baby, Charlie, and when Cassie, the Kennedy's beloved sheep, died, Karl and Susan were united in grief and held a special burial for Cassie in the back yard. After the ceremony, Lyn shocked Susan by pointing out that it was quite obvious she had feelings for Karl again, and Susan initially retorted by angrily insisting she would never forget Alex so quickly. But she gradually conceded that she had started to fall for Karl all over again, and was beginning to think about getting back together with him. When Karl invited Susan to dinner while Jenny was away in Canberra, Susan thought the dinner was signifying a renewed interest on Karl's part too. But she was disappointed when he spent the dinner talking about how pleased he was that they were friends again and then revealed that Jenny had asked him to move to Canberra.

Susan's feelings for Karl came to a head on Alex’s birthday when her plans to visit some of her late husband's favourite places with the Kinski kids fell by the wayside after Karl had to rush up to his father's farm in the countryside and Susan felt she should be with him. Although Zeke was particularly upset that Susan would forgo marking Alex’s birthday to run to aid Karl, Katya pointed out that Karl had been there for their dad when he needed him and Zeke gave Susan his blessing. When Susan got to Tom's house, Karl was thrilled to see her as he was increasingly worried about his father's mental state. The house and land were untidy and Tom himself was unkempt. However, he blamed it on old age slowing him down and Susan and Karl set about tidying the place up. They shared a touching moment when they came across an old fence post outside where they had measured all the kids' heights growing up, and were delighted to see that Libby was continuing the tradition with Ben. But things took a more dramatic turn overnight as Tom started rambling about Libby still being a little girl, not knowing who Ben was and trying to light a fire in the middle of the living room. It became clear to Karl and Susan that Tom was going senile and would need round the clock care. Karl arranged a place for Tom at the local nursing home the following day and after settling him in, returned to the farm with Susan for one last look around. When they came across a lamb cornered by a snake, the pair managed to scare the snake off and comforted the lamb before deciding to take it home as a replacement for Cassie. The moment resulted in Susan and Karl kissing and they continued into the farmhouse before Susan pulled away, blaming the emotion of the past few days and fleeing back to Erinsborough.

Once home, Susan apologised profusely to the kids for missing Alex's birthday and introduced them to the lamb, who Zeke christened Chop. But despite her best efforts, she simply could not get Karl out of her head. It culminated in Susan heading around to Karl's flat late one evening only to find Jenny there and she began to retreat. However, Jenny revealed to Susan that she and Karl had just broken up and that she should stay since it was blindingly obvious to everyone that they were made for each other. Karl was surprised to emerge from his bedroom and find Susan there, and was thrilled when she declared her love for him. They re-ignited their relationship straight away, although opted to keep things quiet initially out of deference to the kids. Susan also wanted to be sure that their relationship was rock solid this time and when Lyn suggested that she was perhaps worried about Karl straying again, Susan told Karl that when she saw him at the Scarlet Bar talking to some nurses he worked with, she was reminded of Sarah and Izzy. Karl assured Susan that in the past, he had wanted out of their marriage because he had wanted to feel young again but his experience with Izzy had made him realise how foolish he had been.

As the secret reunion between Susan and Karl continued, little did they realise that another secret relationship was ongoing. Rachel had started seeing Stingray but was reluctant to tell Susan about it because of the age gap between the pair – Rachel wasn't yet 15 whereas Stingray was 18. Although Susan had been aware of a previous flicker of chemistry between the pair, she had been assured by both Rachel and Stingray that they wouldn’t act on their feelings, and Susan wrongly believed nothing was going on between the two. It was only when both Karl and Susan, and Rachel and Stingray, ended up at the same country retreat that their secret relationships were exposed. Susan was deeply unhappy upon discovering the truth about Rachel, and was particularly upset with her one time ward Stingray, who she had expected to show more responsibility. But Rachel was having none of Susan’s objections and moved out, taking Janelle up on her offer of a place to stay at the Timmins household. There was further drama for Susan when Zeke returned from a footy trip to be told by Rachel about Karl and Susan getting back together, and Susan was devastated when Zeke accused her of never properly loving Alex. Only Katya offered Susan her support, and worked hard at persuading her younger siblings that Susan deserved some happiness. When Rachel’s 15th birthday came around, Susan presented her with a charm bracelet that she and Alex had picked out for her before his death, and touched by the gift, Rachel broke down and made amends with her stepmother. However, Susan still felt guilty about the effect her reunion with Karl was having on the kids and told Karl they would have to hold off on taking things any further.

As Rachel continued to see Stingray, a throwaway comment from Karl led Susan to put two and two together and work out that a clueless Stingray was the father of Sky Mangel's unborn baby as the result of a one night stand the two had shared. While Karl didn't actually tell Susan that her hunch was right, she knew she wasn’t wrong and decided she had to tell Stingray. But she couldn’t find the words, much to the relief of Karl, and opted to write him a letter instead. When Karl found out what she had done, he raced over to No.26 to intercept it and managed to get it away from Rachel and the Timmins clan without them seeing the contents – instead, they thought it had just been a letter from Susan pleading for Stingray to cool things with Rachel. Meanwhile, Stingray had gradually been developing something of a drinking problem, which greatly concerned Rachel and when he accused her of being immature in her treatment of Susan, she was horrified and before long, Rachel called a halt to their romance and moved home. After a heart-to-heart with Susan, Rachel apologised for the trauma she had put the family though and, together with Zeke, she offered Susan and Karl her blessing.

Thinking the trauma of recent weeks was behind them, Susan and Karl officially got back together and were quickly indulging in one of their favorite pastimes – skinny dipping in rather public places (this time, Harold's swimming pool). But unbeknownst to the two, the first stage in a whole new drama was about to begin. Karl had had trouble sleeping and had one night taken a sample of syrup from his colleague Jeremy Levi. Having taken some of the syrup, Karl foolishly made his way to The Scarlet Bar where he found himself drowsy and alone. And on hand to help drown his sorrows was Izzy, who had recently broken up with Paul Robinson. Having helped Karl back to his flat, Izzy put him to bed – only for a confused Karl to mistake her for Susan and kiss her. A vulnerable Izzy reciprocated and the ex lovers slept together but upon hearing Karl on the phone to Susan the next morning, Izzy opted not to ruin the couple’s second chance at happiness and lied to Karl about what had happened between them. Although convinced Izzy couldn’t have simply slept on the couch as she claimed, Karl felt better about things when he confessed what had happened to Susan and she told him she believed Izzy. However, Izzy had lost an earring in Karl’s flat and when Susan found it in the bed sheets while cleaning up for Karl a few weeks later, Susan instantly realised that something had happened between Karl and Izzy. She confronted Izzy, who eventually admitted the truth to Susan, but rather than tell Karl about what had really happened, Susan resolved not to let Izzy come between them yet again and kept quiet on the matter. And Susan went one further step in re-establishing her relationship with Karl by asking him to move back into the Kennedy house.

Karl found re-adjusting to life in his old homestead pretty difficult at first, particularly due to the presence of the Kinski kids who had very much made their mark on the household. To add to his woes, Audrey the dog wasn’t particularly welcoming to him, which led to Susan bringing in animal therapist Dr. Dorothy Little to work on helping Karl regain Audrey's trust. Karl decided to take a break from it all and went to stay with Libby and Darren for a few weeks in Shepparton, and while he was away, Susan made a shocking discovery about Izzy. Izzy had made preparations to leave Erinsborough and began tidying up her legal affairs with Toadie, and this led Susan to wrongly suspect her nemesis was dying. Susan confronted Izzy with her suspicions but Izzy explained that she had got it all wrong and was simply tidying up things before she left town. The former love rivals then agreed to put the past behind them and even admitted that they might have been friends had things been different. But no sooner was the truce called than Susan was rocked to the core by picking up a call for Izzy from Dr. Olenski at Erinsborough Hospital, asking her to reschedule her first ultrasound. Realising that Izzy was pregnant, Susan quickly twigged that Karl could be the child's father and raced after Izzy as she was leaving town to confront her. But just before she set off for her new life, Izzy assured Susan that Karl wasn't the father and told her to ask Paul if she didn’t believe her. Susan was racked with doubts in the days that followed and finally decided to bite the bullet and ask Paul what he knew about the baby’s paternity. Paul placated Susan by revealing the child was the result of a one-night stand Izzy had had with a hotel guest at Lassiter’s, which set Susan’s mind at rest once and for all. But unbeknownst to her, Izzy had struck a deal with Paul before her departure whereby he would lie about the child's father if Susan ever asked him and keep the true identity of the father – Karl – to himself.

Susan's attention was happily diverted, meanwhile, when Billy and Anne announced they were having a baby, and Susan excitedly prepared to become a grandmother for the second time. But after returning from spending a few weeks with the parents-to-be in Queensland, Susan found Karl in a state of crisis. It had been discovered that Karl had got the paternity tests wrong in the Sky/Dylan/Stingray saga and as a result, Dylan had been identified as the real father of baby Kerry. This had prompted Janelle to begin legal proceedings against Karl for negligence and the Kennedys' future looked bleak as Janelle vowed to take Karl for every penny he had. A furious Susan lost her cool with Janelle in the middle of Ramsay Street and reminded her that she and Karl had taken in her kids and got them back on the straight and narrow. But despite Janelle calling off her lawyers, Karl had lost all confidence in his abilities as a doctor, and when Sky put in a complaint against him to the medical board, he quit medicine for good.

Karl's decision resulted in Susan becoming the sole breadwinner in the household, and she was forced to bite her tongue as Karl embarked on a programme of self-sufficiency in order to offset the effects of his decreased income. He took to growing his own vegetables, filling the backyard with chickens and a rooster named Springsteen - and much to the disdain of Susan - indulged himself in his new lifestyle by growing a beard! Susan was pretty horrified by Karl's eco-friendly actions, and was hugely embarrassed when Springsteen began to wake the entire neighbourhood up with his crowing at the crack of dawn each morning. As Karl's beard grew, it became infested with lice, forcing Susan and the kids to camp out in the back yard. When it was discovered that Springsteen had been the cause of the lice infestation, Susan insisted he go and Karl was forced to bid adieu to his feathered friend. Susan next turned her attention to Karl's increasingly hideous beard, and she tried everything from attempting to shave it off while he slept to manufacturing conversations between the two new No.30 residents, Rosie Cammeniti and Pepper Steiger, in which they talked of how attractive they found Karl with the beard. It was only when one of Zeke's school friends mistook Karl for Zeke’s grandfather that Karl finally shaved it off.

When Zeke started to spend an inordinate amount of time in the loft of the Kennedy house, Susan began to wonder why every teenage boy who had lived under her roof had been so interested in that part of the house. It all became clear when she caught Zeke reading an old issue of Ambrosia magazine, and she discovered that Toadie had left a secret stash up there from when he lived at with the Kennedys'. Zeke was mortified by Susan's discovery, but she told him she didn't mind him looking at such magazines as long as he didn't come to objectify women. Zeke responded by binning the magazines, but as he did, he was shocked to notice one of the magazines contained a lewd picture of Katya. Zeke's discovery brought all of Katya's past exploits – which Susan had found out about prior to the custody hearing – out into the open, and she admitted to posing for centerfolds in lads magazines and stealing cars to fund a drug habit when she was an out of control teenager. Soon after, her old partner in crime Guy Sykes showed up in Erinsborough and caused no end of grief for the Kennedy-Kinskis as he set about blackmailing Katya into returning to her old tricks. Things came to a head when Guy held Katya, Zeke, Toadie, Steph and Charlie hostage at No.32 over Christmas, shooting Toadie in the process. Luckily, he pulled through and once Guy was behind bars, Katya decided the best thing she could do in the wake of the drama she had inflicted upon the family, would be to leave town. She accepted a job as a medic to the Adelaide Crows football team and, much to the delight of Susan, later became involved with their star player – and Susan's former pupil – Paul McClain.

Shortly after Katya's departure, Karl surprised Susan with a trip to London. With Mal and Catherine overseas at the time of their trip, Susan was thrilled when Karl arranged for the couple to stay in The Ritz. However, upon arriving in London, she was disgusted to find that it wasn't The Ritz Hotel he had booked, but The Ritz Hostel – a rundown backpacker-filled hostel in a rough part of town. But she quickly calmed down, and even got to enjoy the venue when she befriended a crowd of Aussie students who were sharing their room. The next day, Susan and Karl were enjoying the sights of London when Susan spotted a seemingly homeless woman lying on a bench along the Thames. Since the woman was pregnant, Susan insisted on giving her some money – but with a newspaper across her face, Susan and Karl failed to notice that the 'homeless' person was, in fact, Izzy. Far from being homeless, Izzy had settled in London and fallen madly in love with professional footballer Pete Gartside. The only problem was that Pete was married and Izzy was now a tabloid sensation in the UK for breaking up a high profile celebrity marriage. Susan and Karl eventually realised that Izzy was causing a media storm in London when they noticed her on the front page of a newspaper and Susan felt a sense of déjà vu when she read all about Izzy's apparent tawdry affair with a married man. However, when Susan bumped into Izzy the following day, she was surprised to learn from her former nemesis that Pete hadn't cheated on his wife and had actually left her after she had been unfaithful to him on a number of occasions during their marriage. Susan tried to persuade Izzy to tell the press her side of the story, but Izzy reasoned it would only make things worse. Before Susan could persuade her further, Karl arrived and his surprise at seeing Izzy was quickly extended when he realised she was pregnant. To prevent any squabbling between Karl and Izzy, Susan dragged him away and explained to him that the father of the child was a guy she had met at Lassiter's, before resolving to do something to help Izzy. Karl was taken aback by Susan's dogged determination to help Izzy, but Susan reasoned that since Izzy was being honest for the first time in her life and appeared to be genuinely in love with Pete, they should do whatever they could to get her life back on track. Susan contacted Pete and met him under the pretense that she was Izzy's mother, and quickly managed to persuade him to follow his heart and put aside whatever negative reaction his relationship with Izzy might have in the press, and Pete and Izzy reunited.

Meanwhile, Karl surprised Susan by arranging a private pod for the couple on the London Eye and when they reached the top, he stunned her by proposing. A thrilled Susan accepted Karl's heartfelt apology for all his previous misdemeanors and agreeing that third time would definitely be lucky, she accepted. There was an even bigger surprise to come for Susan though, as a few days later Karl whisked her off to a mini cruise boat on the River Thames where he had organised a minister, two witnesses, a Puccini & Hill wedding gown that she had been admiring and a beautifully romantic wedding ceremony. A tearful exchange of vows followed, as Susan and Karl finally put the traumatic few years they had each experienced behind them and remarried.

But within moments of being pronounced Mrs Kennedy once more, Susan's happiness was interrupted, yet again, by Izzy, who had been on the boat and was waiting to admit the truth about the parentage of her unborn child. But if the Kennedys thought her timing was bad, there was worse to come as before she could even say what she had come to say, Izzy's water broke and she went into labour on the boat in the middle of the Thames. It fell to Karl to deliver the baby, a little girl named Holly, and in the wake of everything that had happened, Izzy opted not to ruin Karl and Susan's happy day and kept the truth about baby Holly's father to herself. But just as Susan and Karl finally prepared to put Izzy behind them once and for all and depart for their honeymoon night at the real Ritz, Susan noticed that Izzy had left her handbag behind and went to the ambulance to return it to her. However, she overheard Izzy and Pete discussing a shocking fact – that Karl was the father of Holly – and rocked to the core, Susan left the handbag with the paramedic before returning to Karl, wondering what to do with the bombshell that had just been dropped on her.

Sadly, another bombshell was awaiting Susan upon her return to Erinsborough. Ramsay Street had been hit by a tragedy while Susan and Karl were away - Stingray had donated his bone marrow to help cure baby Kerry from leukemia and despite recovering from the operation, he suffered an aneurysm a few days later and died. Susan was devastated by the death of one of the many teenagers she had taken in over the years. The loss led to Susan and Janelle uniting in their grief and Susan eventually decided to confide in Janelle about baby Holly's true parentage. Janelle gave Susan a new perspective on her conundrum by pointing out how she would give anything to have her child back, prompting Susan to put aside her own unease about the situation and informing Karl that he was the real father of Izzy's baby. Karl was stunned by Susan's confession, and initially lashed out at Susan for not telling him as soon as she found out. But he quickly realised how difficult it must have been for her, and after calming down, he contacted Izzy, who told him she didn't want him to have any involvement in Holly's upbringing. Susan was somewhat pleased with Izzy's decision but a few days later, Izzy had a change of heart and told Karl she had reconsidered her position. Karl then shocked Susan by flying back to London to spend some time with his new daughter.

Trivia Notes
• Susan holds the record for the most different surnames for one character (jointly with Madge Bishop). Susan was known as Susan Kennedy until 2004, when she reverted to her maiden name Smith after divorcing Karl. She became Mrs Alex Kinski in 2006
• Her favourite book is Pride And Prejudice
• She loves Cary Grant films
• Susan's favourite food is toast
• She was addicted to Brazilian soap opera Lust Na Vila
• When Susan had retrograde amnesia in 2002, she believed the year was 1972 and that she was 16 years old
• Susan doesn't let Rachel & Zeke eat chocolate on the sofa
• On the day Susan and Karl got engaged the first time they could only share a glass of champagne together as Karl had a medical exam to go to
• Susan prefers The General Store coffee to Charlie’s
• Susan wore tartan at high school
• She enjoys the Portuguese tarts made in a little bakery just outside of Shepparton
• Karl bought Susan a foot spa for Christmas 2007