The Heart of Erinsborough: Susan Kennedy Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Susan wasn't always a Kennedy; before she married Karl she was known by her maiden name. What was it?

Answer: Smith

After her divorce from Karl in 2004, Susan went back to using the name Smith and continued to do so until her marriage to Alex Kinski in 2005. She then continued to use the name Kinski, even after her re-marriage to Karl Kennedy in 2007, for the sake of Rachel and Zeke, Alex's two youngest children, who had been left under her care after his death. Susan eventually reverted back to being a Kennedy, after asking the children if it was okay, when she realised that she and Karl had never really discussed her keeping Alex's surname.

2. Susan has had a number of jobs during her time on "Neighbours"; she was a journalist, the editor of the "Erinsborough News", a teacher, and perhaps most memorably, principal of Erinsborough High. But, what was the first job outside of the home she did after she moved into Ramsay Street?

Answer: Assistant at The Hungry Bite Cafe

Susan had always planned to be a teacher, but once the children were born she put her career on hold in order to be a wife and mother. After moving to Ramsay Street, with her children all teenagers, Susan became dissatisfied with being a full-time housewife and wanted to get involved in the community.

She dismissed Karl's ideas about having another baby, and after a brief stint of giving piano lessons, Susan began working at The Hungry Bite Cafe which was at that time owned by Annalise Hartman. Susan was eventually offered a job at Erinsborough High and was able to finally fulfill her dream of being a teacher.

3. Despite having three biological children of her own, Mal, Libby and Billy, and being step-mother to Rachel and Zeke, Susan often acted as something of a surrogate parent for a number of other young people who have been in need of some care and attention. Which of these kids never actually lived with Susan at No. 28, but was helped out by her nonetheless?

Answer: Harry Ramsay

Harry moved into Harold Bishop's old house in 2009, along with his two sisters, Kate and Sophie, after his mother was killed in a hit and run accident. Harry had more trouble adjusting to his new situation than the two girls did and caused some trouble on the street, not least by breaking into the Kennedy's house. Susan eventually managed to get him to confess that he had only broken in to play the Kennedy's keyboard, as he could play rather well and it reminded him of his mother.

After playing his mother's favourite song, Harry broke down and Susan comforted him. Susan told him he was welcome to come and play the instrument whenever he liked and eventually ended up giving it to him to keep.

4. Susan famously suffered from a bout of retrograde amnesia in 2002 after she fell and banged her head on the floor, only to wake up the next day believing that she was sixteen years old. But, what caused Susan's fall in the first place?

Answer: She slipped on some spilt milk

The day after her accident Susan woke up thinking it was 1972 and was utterly bewildered to be told that was a married mother of three. Confused and scared, Susan eventually ran away and attempted to contact her high school sweetheart Craig Benson. After a few weeks, he eventually managed to convince her that she needed to go back to her family, but Susan was afraid of returning to her husband Karl, and found him very difficult to be around. She went through months of counseling and her son-in-law, Drew Kirk, spent a lot of time with her trying to help her regain her lost memories.

Susan was making progress in accepting her family and had begun to experience the odd flashback to her previous life. This was all thrown into disarray when she experienced a flashback to the aftermath of Karl's brief affair with his receptionist, Sarah Beaumont, which had happened a few years earlier. Feeling betrayed all over again, Susan backed away from Karl emotionally, moved into her own flat and started divorce proceedings.

The sudden and unexpected death of Drew in a horse riding accident, and Susan's consequent inability to be a comfort to her widowed daughter, was an important step in Susan's recovery process; as she redoubled her efforts to reconnect with Libby in the aftermath of the tragedy. Susan also grew closer to Karl at this time and eventually moved back into the family home at No. 28. After finding his wife looking through old wedding photos, Karl proposed to her once again, and the two were married later that year on what would have been their wedding anniversary. As fate would have it, Susan's memory returned to her as she began to recite her wedding vows and she instead recited the vows that she had spoken on her and Karl's original wedding day all those years ago.

5. The residents of Ramsay Street were more like close friends than traditional neighbours and Susan has had many very good friends who have lived in the same street as her over the years. Which one of these women would Susan not have classed as a close friend?

Answer: Isabelle Hoyland

It's safe to say that Susan didn't exactly hit it off with Isabelle Hoyland. Izzy had arrived on the scene just as Karl and Susan's marriage had started to go through a bad patch; instead of sorting things out with his wife, Karl chose to repeatedly confide in Izzy.

After a number of unsuccessful counseling sessions, Karl informed Susan that he just didn't love her anymore and the two split, with Karl eventually starting a long-term relationship with Izzy. A number of Izzy-centric dramas followed in Susan and Karl's lives; encompassing a baby drama (in which Izzy lied about Karl being the father), a divorce (which became increasingly nasty spurred on by Izzy's manipulations), a wedding (in which Izzy stood Karl up at the altar) and a heart attack (because the situation was stressing Karl out so much). Karl and Izzy's relationship eventually ended very publicly when Karl realised the true extent of her lies.

6. The relationship between Karl and Susan has had its fair share of ups and downs. They married for the third time in 2007 at a surprise ceremony which Karl had arranged. But, in which city did the wedding take place?

Answer: London

Karl proposed to Susan in a pod on the London Eye. After she said yes, Karl secretly arranged for the wedding to take place on a boat on the Thames. The first Susan knew of it was a note Karl had left for her on the morning of the ceremony on top of a box containing a wedding dress.

The wedding almost went off without a hitch, except for the tiny hiccup of a heavily pregnant Izzy Hoyland gatecrashing the event and giving birth on the deck of the boat, with Karl helping to deliver the baby. Now a somewhat reformed character and desperate to get on with her life Izzy wanted nothing more than to let Karl and Susan live in peace; unfortunately there was one final twist of the knife for Susan as she accidentally overheard Izzy mention that Karl was the father of the child, Holly, he had just helped her give birth to; a secret Izzy had hoped to keep from the happy couple.

7. It was an eventful year for Susan- 2007; not only did she remarry Karl for the third time, but she was also involved in a car accident in which she accidentally ran over and badly injured local teenage girl, Bridget Parker. The cause of the accident, Susan's lapse of concentration, was later found to be an underlying medical condition that nobody knew she had. Which medical condition was Susan eventually diagnosed with?

Answer: Multiple Sclerosis

Susan's health was badly affected by the trial revolving around the Bridget Parker accident and her condition continued to worsen. After enduring a series of misdiagnoses, the hospital eventually came to the realisation that she had MS and treatment was started. Nevertheless Susan continued to relapse during periods of extreme stress or strain.

The aftermath of the accident involving Bridget, and her subsequent MS diagnosis, were contributory factors in her decision to refrain from returning to teaching.

8. Which iconic Ramsay Street resident and "Neighbours" legend, who left the show in 2009, confided to Susan in their goodbye scene that he would miss her "most of all"?

Answer: Harold Bishop

Harold Bishop left Ramsay Street in 2009. But, before doing so he left behind an important gift in the care of Toadie; a book called "Ramsay Street: A History", which Harold hoped Toadie would continue to add to in his absence.

This was Harold's closing voiceover: "Ramsay Street. Feels like I arrived a lifetime ago, but it's been years of wonderful memories that I will cherish forever; marrying my childhood sweetheart, Madge; helping raise my beautiful granddaughter, Sky, and forging wonderful friendships that would last a lifetime. I have taken unexpected turns, experienced great love and great loss and faced impossible challenges. But the best thing of all is that I found a family bigger than I ever could have imagined. My story ends here, but the story of Ramsay Street is far from over. So, Jarrod, it's up to you to document it now..."

9. Susan has been central to a number of controversial story lines over the years, but which one prompted Paul Robinson, who was working as a 'jobbing reporter' at the "Erinsborough News" at the time, to unwittingly write a front page article denouncing her actions?

Answer: Susan offering to be a surrogate for her daughter Libby's baby

Yes, all these story lines actually happened!

Paul wrote an article about the surrogacy despite not knowing who the surrogate was at the time. The article ran in the paper under the headline: GRANNY SURROGATE: DOES IT GET ANY SICKER? However, it wasn't just on Ramsay Street that the story caused a stir; the idea of a woman of Susan's age, who had Multiple Sclerosis, giving birth to her own daughter's baby shocked the British public as well, with the executive producer of "Neighbours" receiving many letters of complaint from people despite the scenes not having aired yet. As chance would have it, this scenario never came to pass as Susan ended up miscarrying the baby due to slipping and falling in the woods after arguing with the father of the child.

As for the other story lines mentioned:

Susan confessed to her student Brett Stark that she had killed her mother whilst they were on a trip to Kenya. Susan's MS diagnosis was controversial due to the age of the character at the time the condition was discovered. And Susan had a short-lived relationship with Father Tom Scully, the brother-in-law of her best friend Lyn, who eventually decided to leave the priesthood. At their final meeting in 2007, Susan told Tom that part of their problem was that she was never the perfect woman he had always thought her to be, but Tom simply replied that "...it depends on your definition of perfect."

10. Nothing much gets past Susan, as numerous pupils of Erinsborough High have learned, but what nickname did Scott "Stingray" Timmins give her when however much he tried to avoid her, she always managed to turn up when he least wanted her to?

Answer: Ninja Suse

The nickname of Ninja Suse seems to have stuck and will occasionally be mentioned as a warning by those smart enough to know that Susan will eventually find out anything you want to keep from her. So don't bother to cross her for she will pop up when you least expect it and catch you in the act!

Source: Author misco

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Gamemaster1967 before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Susan Kennedy was first introduced on "Neighbours" in late 1994 as the wife and mother of the Kennedy family. Nobody could have predicted then how long the character would stay on the show or how popular she would become. How much do you know about her?

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>