Karen McDonald

Karen Phillips (previously McDonald) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, a long-running serial drama about working class life in the fictional town of Weatherfield. She is played by actress Suranne Jones. Karen was created by producer Jane Macnaught as a recurring character and one of the factory girls. She made her debut in the episode airing on 21 June 2000. On 13 May 2004, Jones announced her decision to leave the soap and her final scenes were broadcast on 26 December 2004. Karen's storylines have focused on her number of boyfriends including, Vikram Desai (Chris Bisson) and Joe Carter (Jonathan Wrather), also her relationship with Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) and her miscarriage and her feud with Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford).

Storylines

Karen arrived in Coronation Street in June 2000 as a friend of Linda Sykes (Jacqueline Pirie) who used to work with her at Wheelers. Karen was taken on as a new machinist at Underworld. She quickly found herself popular with the men of the Street and had a fling with Vikram Desai (Chris Bisson). Over Christmas she was drinking alone in the Rovers and ended up spending the night with Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne). In 2001, Karen was going out with Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson). Her colleague, Janice Battersby (Vicky Entwistle) said that none of Karen’s boyfriends ever took her seriously. Janice bet £10 that Karen wouldn’t be able to get engaged, so Karen persuaded Steve to propose to her in front of all the Rovers' regulars. Neither Karen nor Steve would back out but each thought that the other would. They held the reception at the Rovers. Six weeks later they finally arranged their honeymoon in Florida. Having moved into the flat over Street Cars, Karen soon got fed up and they moved into the flat over The Kabin.