She grew up as the sweet girl next door on The Sullivans, but once Susan Hannaford left the beloved Aussie series, she ditched Kitty’s pigtails and reinvented herself as a flamboyant, blonde-haired US property tycoon.
And no-one was more shocked by her transformation than her former flame, Mark Holden!
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Almost 50 years ago, Mark dated Susan while he was starring as Dr Greg Mason on The Young Doctors and she was one of the nation’s biggest TV stars.
“We were an item for a while and it’s just now, in the fullness of time, that I see how bizarrely her life turned out and all the wacky stuff she does in America. It’s bizarre,” Mark reveals in an exclusive interview with New Idea.
“We were young and we were both on a television show, and it was a lot of fun. Susan had a Mercedes and we’d roll around Sydney as two young, well-known acting-type people. It was a glamorous, fabulous time.”
Mark, who had a legion of female admirers thanks to his pop star days as ‘The Carnation Kid’ on Countdown, adds: “It must have been fun for the fans to see us together.
“It was a wild ride, and it was a really fantastic time. Oh yes, I was living out that dream of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.”
Like most of The Sullivans’ viewers, Mark, 67, admits he was stunned when he saw photos of Susan following her radical makeover.
“I can’t believe it’s the same person,” the former Australian Idol judge admits.
Susan, now 68, returned to the spotlight three years ago, when she was photographed shopping in ritzy Beverly Hills in Los Angeles. Dressed in a crop top and tiny black shorts, she teetered around in knee-high boots while clutching a tiny fluffy dog.
A “train wreck” TV interview with Sunday Night followed, which featured a peroxide-blonde Susan showing off her mansion and her personal chef.
But it backfired spectacularly when a reporter asked her about claims she lost millions in US real estate.
“I’ve been watching those shows and going, ‘Oh my God!’” laughs Mark.
Susan, who was a household name in Australia in the ’70s and ’80s, had been absent from the limelight for years before she was spotted in LA, her new appearance leaving fans gobsmacked.
In 2013, A Current Affair even declared her “missing” after her Sydney beachfront property was repossessed by the bank.
But then, Susan’s life after The Sullivans has often been shrouded in mystery and intrigue. She had a daughter after a fling with eccentric property developer Emmanuel Margolin, who famously built his own castle, Notre Dame, with his wife in Mulgoa, west of Sydney.
Susan still describes the late Emmanuel as “the love of her life” on her website and says they raised their daughter, Marquessa, at Notre Dame. The property boasted its own private zoo and dancing horses from the now-defunct theme park El Caballo Blanco, which Emmanuel also owned.
It was Emmanuel – who never officially divorced his wife – who inspired Susan to build what she describes as her own “global luxury real estate empire”. That empire includes an imposing $20 million white Hollywood mansion she’s called home for the past 20 years.
In another twist, it’s at this home, Palazzo Beverly Hills, that Susan is raising Marquessa’s two young children, Bella and Dante, who she formally adopted.
The stunning mansion is often rented out to celebrities, and was the scene of a fatal shooting last year when it was rented by NFL players.
Mark, who insists his romance with Susan “wasn’t a particularly serious relationship”, also left Australia for America in the early ’80s. He carved out a very successful career as a singer-songwriter before returning home.
But his jaunt to the United States certainly wasn’t to chase Susan!
“I went to America in 1982, hooked up with my wife, Anna, and we’ve been together ever since!”
For more, pick up a copy of New Idea. On sale now!
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