Richard O’Sullivan Dies at 82: Life, Illness, and Relationships

A generation grew up watching Richard O’Sullivan turn the eternal lodger Robin Tripp into a sitcom icon, so the news of his death on 4 September 2026 closed a long chapter in British comedy. The Royal Variety Charity (care charity), which had provided his care for 23 years, confirmed he died peacefully at Brinsworth House in Twickenham. The private story behind the sitcom fame involves two marriages, a late-life stroke, and a family who asked for privacy.

Born: 7 May 1944 · Died: 4 September 2026 · Age at death: 82 · Notable role: Robin Tripp · TV series: Man About the House, Robin’s Nest

Key facts at a glance

Six facts, one pattern: the public biography is tidy, while the private record stays tightly guarded.

The implication: the career landmarks are easy to list, but the emotional biography remains mostly unwritten.

Why did Tessa Wyatt and Richard O’Sullivan split?

The public timeline of Richard O’Sullivan and Tessa Wyatt is short enough to fit inside an obituary paragraph: a son, born in 1983, and a relationship that the coverage confirms without ever explaining why it ended.

What makes the split hard to summarise is how little official detail exists. The immediate reports do not offer a stated reason, and neither side has filled the gap with a detailed public account.

Did Tessa Wyatt have a child with Richard O’Sullivan?

• Yes — one son, born in 1983, is recorded in the family row of the key facts table above.

How many children has Tessa Wyatt got?

• One child is on the record: a son born in 1983.

Who is Tessa Wyatt with now?

• No long-term partner has been publicly confirmed since her relationship with O’Sullivan ended.

The pattern: the more recognisable the couple, the quieter the paperwork. The son is documented; the reasons for the split are not.

How many times has Richard O’Sullivan been married?

The family row in the key facts table answers this in one line: two marriages, both ending in divorce. The dates make the chronology clear without explaining what either relationship meant to him.

Who was Richard O’Sullivan’s wife?

• Diana Terry — married in 1971, marriage dissolved in 1974.
• Christine Smart — married in 1988, divorced in 1993.

What this means: his private life resisted the same exposure that made his sitcom character a household name.

Did Richard O’Sullivan date Sally Thomsett?

Sally Thomsett worked alongside him in Man About the House, and the question of whether they briefly dated has followed both actors for decades. The immediate obituary coverage does not confirm a romance, and neither actor is on record treating it as a settled part of the story.

The evidence stays thin. What the 2026 obituaries preserve is his professional partnership with Thomsett on one of Britain’s best-loved sitcoms, not a personal relationship.

The catch: absence of evidence is not proof that nothing happened, but in a full obituary sweep, the silence is conspicuous.

What illness did Richard O’Sullivan have?

The clearest answer in the record is a stroke. Television Heaven (biographical archive) describes a severe stroke in 2003 as an event that profoundly changed the course of his later life.

After that, the public appearances slowed, and his remaining years were spent away from the cameras.

What was Richard O’Sullivan’s cause of death?

• No medical cause was included in the initial statement from the Royal Variety Charity.

Is Richard O’Sullivan in a nursing home?

• He spent his final 23 years at Brinsworth House, a care home run by the Royal Variety Charity.

Why this matters: the distance between a peaceful death and a precise diagnosis is exactly what sustains the search questions around his final years.

Is Richard O’Sullivan still alive?

No — Richard O’Sullivan is not alive. The date of death, 4 September 2026, appears in the key facts table above and is repeated in the timeline below. He was 82.

The confirmation came from the Royal Variety Charity and was carried by the BBC and ITV News, giving the public record a rare level of clarity for such a private man.

The consequence: the question that once asked whether he was still alive has now become a question about what he left behind.

Timeline signal

Three markers, one pattern: a slow retreat from public life after a single health event.

The read-on: the most important date in his private timeline is 2003, because it marks the moment his public life effectively closed.

Confirmed facts and open questions

The table above forms the confirmed core. The list below is where the searches still argue.

The balance to keep: the confirmed record is real but narrow, and the gaps are wide enough to keep the rumour mill active.

In their words

Richard O’Sullivan passed away peacefully surrounded by close family at Brinsworth House in Twickenham.

— Royal Variety Charity (care charity)

Richard O’Sullivan was born on 7 May 1944 in London and grew up in Chiswick.

— The Telegraph (newspaper obituary)

Two voices, one through-line: the man was loved by the people around him, and the world only ever saw the performing half of him.

The public conversation around Richard O’Sullivan will now settle on two questions: how much of his work survives, and how much of his private life the family chooses to share. The comedy is easy to revisit; the silence is not. For UK broadcasters, the decision is clear: keep Man About the House and Robin’s Nest in circulation, or let one of British sitcom’s most beloved characters fade from the catch-up menu.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related reading

• Man About the House
• Robin’s Nest