'Neighbours' star reveals Kennedys crisis twist

Neighbours star Alan Fletcher has revealed more details of the Kennedys' upcoming marriage crisis.

Fletcher teased that his character Karl's relationship with wife Susan (Jackie Woodbourne) will be pushed to breaking point when she develops an emotional attachment to another man, who - in an added twist - is suffering from a terminal illness.

"Karl's reaction is that he feels that Susan is displaying a disproportionate amount of care for a man that is terminally ill," Fletcher explained to Holy Soap. "He is upset because he feels that Susan is actually using this as a diversion away from him, and a way of dealing with fears of living in an empty nest and not being needed.

"So it's not so much that Karl thinks his wife is having an affair, but emotionally she is not fully committed to him."

The 50-year-old also confessed to finding the shock shake-up of a Ramsay Street institution an "exciting" experience.

"Anything that takes us into new territory is exciting. They have had issues with infidelities; however, this is something very different and it's born from what happens to a couple that have been together for such a long time and find themselves with an empty nest," he said.

"All the kids have grown up, moved away, and it's a completely different emotional bent which is fascinating to explore."

Fletcher added: "It's amazing how [when it comes to] the big things that happen to a couple, like infidelity and those sorts of things, the Kennedys have always been able to get through it.

"This is a different straw on the camel's back that you wonder if this is the final one. I don't even know, to be honest, and I'm going to be interested to know where they are going to take it."

It has been announced that Karl and Susan's marriage crisis will set up their son Malcolm's (Benjie McNair) Neighbours return.