Carla Star’s Heartbreaks

Alison King has spent nearly two decades at the centre of Coronation Street drama as Carla Connor, but her off-screen love life has also drawn public interest.

The actress joined the ITV soap in 2006, with Carla becoming one of Weatherfield’s most prominent figures through storylines involving affairs, alcoholism, business battles and personal reinvention. Her latest chapter has put her back in the spotlight, after Carla married Lisa Swain, played by Vicky Myers, this week. The pair’s romance began in 2024 and has become a major talking point among fans.

Away from the cobbles, King was previously in a five-year relationship with former Coronation Street actor Philip Middlemiss, who played Des Barnes. The pair reportedly met in a Tenerife bar in March 1995, but had split by 2000. Middlemiss later said: “I was in love with Allie. She's the only person I've ever really loved.”

King was also engaged to Coronation Street sound technician Adam Huckett. The couple share daughter Daisy, now 17, but never married and separated in 2012. King has previously spoken about the challenges of new motherhood after Daisy’s emergency C-section birth.

That time was also emotionally complex because Daisy was born on the same day King’s co-star Kym Marsh lost her baby son in February 2009, after he was born 21 weeks early and survived only briefly. Marsh later said King felt immense guilt over the painful contrast between their experiences.

In 2018, King was photographed with IT consultant David Stuckley, nine years her junior. They confirmed their engagement in 2019, but by May 2022 it emerged they had separated after reportedly growing apart during lockdown.

King continues to keep her private life largely low-profile, while her role in the long-running soap created by Tony Warren remains one of Coronation Street’s most enduring modern success stories. The ITV institution also counts legacy stars such as William Roache and Barbara Knox among its defining figures.