Robert Sullivan

Robert Sullivan followed in the footsteps of 1964 Olympian Alan Petherbridge as Swansea became one of the hubs of the spread of judo in the United Kingdom. Sullivan was a judo instructor at the Afan Lido Sports Centre in Aberavon when he became British champion whilst also working as the manager of a night club in Swansea.Disappointingly his Olympic career was only to last two minutes as he lost in the opening bout in Munich to the Hungarian judoka Antal Hetényi.

In 1970, whilst working at his night club, he met local singer Gaynor Hopkins who, under her stage name of Bonnie Tyler would have hit records in the 1970s and 1980s which culminated when Total Eclipse of The Heart topped the charts all over the world. The pair would share a fifty-three year marriage starting from 1973

Sullivan himself had a successful career in real estate with properties in Wales, the area around London, New Zealand and in Portugal. They spent most of their time for the last third of his wife’s life in the Algarve. At her death in 2026 the couple were reckoned to be worth £40 Million due to their property portfolio and her earnings from the music industry.

He is also related to Oscar winning actress Catherine Zeta Jones as her father David Jones is Sullivan’s cousin.