Carla Connor

Carla Connor (also Gordon, Barlow, and Connor-Swain) is a fictional character from the British ITVsoap operaCoronation Street, played by Alison King. She made her first appearance on screen during the episode airing on 1 December 2006 and introduced as the wife of Paul Connor (Sean Gallagher). This was King's second role in the soap as she previously played Mrs. Fanshaw for one episode in 2004. King appeared in her 1,000th episode as Carla on 22 May 2015. Carla has been referred to as "the new Elsie Tanner".

King was off-screen from February 2009 until October 2009 due to her maternity leave. King later took a 6-month break in May 2012 and was offscreen from 16 July to 10 December. King quit the role in 2015 and her final scenes aired on 26 May 2016. The following year, producer Kate Oates reintroduced Carla and she returned on-screen on 22 December 2017.

Carla has had relationships with Liam Connor (Rob James-Collier), Trevor Dean (Steve Jackson) and Frank Foster (Andrew Lancel), and has been married six times to Paul Connor, Tony Gordon (Gray O'Brien), Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne) (twice), Nick Tilsley (Ben Price), and Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers). Her storylines include finding out Paul has been having affairs with escorts which eventually leads to him being killed in a car crash, having an affair with Liam and Tony killing him when he discovers it, being kidnapped in her factory by Tony and escaping when the building explodes (known as "Siege Week"), battling alcoholism, drink driving and running over Stella Price (Michelle Collins), being raped by Frank, attempting suicide, becoming a suspect in Frank's murder, an affair and marriage with Peter, learning that Peter has been having an affair with Tina McIntyre (Michelle Keegan), suffering a miscarriage because of the stress, being a suspect in Tina’s murder, escaping a fire at her flat started by her arch-enemy Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford), coping when people blame her for starting the fire which leads to her alcoholism returning and developing a gambling addiction, almost attempting suicide when the guilt over the fire becomes too much before her innocence is revealed, learning that family friend Johnny Connor (Richard Hawley) is actually her biological father, being blackmailed by Tracy and later trying to kill her which leads to two car crashes on the street, suffering from kidney failure and undergoing a kidney transplant with her half-brother Aidan Connor (Shayne Ward), dealing with Aidan's suicide, a feud with Alya Nazir (Sair Khan) over the ownership of the Underworld factory, attempting to frame Abi Franklin (Sally Carman) for arson, and becoming a public enemy through her workaholism which leads to the factory roof fatally collapsing and her subsequent psychotic episode - during which she went missing for a month and was raped again. After re-marrying Peter, he leaves for a new life, and Carla begins a same-sex relationship with Lisa. Since then, she has been attacked in underworld, had her head injury from the attack cause sepsis which leads to kidney failure, undergone a second kidney transplant with her half-brother Rob, been kidnapped by Rob and later held hostage by him along with Lisa. It was revealed that Lisa’s “dead” wife was actually alive and after successfully causing a break-up between Carla and Lisa, Becky kidnaps Carla and leaves her for dead. Once reconciled, Carla and Lisa got married making Coronation Street history as the first sapphic couple to successfully do so.