| abstract | - Carla Connor (née Donovan, previously Gordon and Barlow) was the result of a one-night stand between Johnny Connor and her mother Sharon and the owner/manager of Underworld lingerie factory in Coronation Street from 2007 to 2016. From a poor start in life, Carla inherited her husband Paul's share of the factory after he died in a car crash. Paul had been running Underworld with his brother Liam since 2006 and after he died Carla and Liam, in denial about their feelings for each other, married Tony Gordon and Maria Sutherland respectively. After his son Paul was stillborn, Liam slept with Carla, leading paranoid Tony to have him killed in a hit-and-run. Tony confessed to his crime but escaped from prison six months later and almost killed Carla in a fire at the factory in which he perished. After her showdown with Tony, Carla developed a drinking problem and fell for Peter Barlow, who was a recovering alcoholic. Peter rejected Carla to marry Leanne Battersby, and Carla went with Frank Foster instead, although when she admitted to herself that Frank was just a substitute for Peter and broke off their engagement, Frank raped her, leading Carla to attempt suicide. Carla and Peter then started an affair which was exposed in court, helping Frank get acquitted although soon after his release he was murdered by his mother Anne. Carla and Peter were married in 2013 but within weeks Peter strayed, embarking on an affair with Tina McIntyre. When Carla found out, she finished with Peter and the stress caused her to miscarry their baby. The destructiveness of her relationship with Peter led Carla to become attracted to nice guy Nick Tilsley, who she married in 2016, but on their wedding day Tracy Barlow revealed that their plans to give up their lives and businesses in Weatherfield and move to Devon were a result of her blackmailing Carla over her one-night-stand with Robert Preston. Nick walked away from his marriage, leaving Carla to go to Devon on her own. Carla projected an icy exterior to most people, letting few people know the real her. She was a mother hen to her machinists, but the factory was frequently affected by her personal problems, including her problems with drinking, gambling and poor taste in men. Her brother was Rob Donovan, and her father, Johnny Connor, only admitted that he had sired her in 2015, after which she became close to her half-brother and half-sister Aidan and Kate.
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