Steve McDonald

Steven James "Steve" McDonald is the son of Jim and Liz McDonald, the twin brother of Andy and the older brother of the late Katie McDonald. He has a daughter, Amy, and two sons; Ruairi who was stillborn, and Oliver.

Steve grew up in army lodgings and first moved to Coronation Street in 1989 when Jim was demobbed. Steve started out as the family failure; he was impetuous, reckless, and a liar. He was always in trouble, be it with family, women, or the police. He wanted to get into business and used gambling winnings to buy MVB Print and married heiress Vicky Arden, but a year later he was sent to prison for handling stolen whisky and perverting the course of justice, and Vicky left him when he tried to put the blame on her in court.

In 2000, Steve set up Street Cars with Vikram Desai. He was beaten to near death by drug dealer Jez Quigley's thugs in revenge for testifying against Jez in court on a murder charge. The following year, he married Karen Phillips for a bet but they fell in love anyway and (Karen) decided to get divorced just so they could get married again in style. While separated from Karen, Steve had a one-night stand with Tracy Barlow and nine months later their daughter Amy was born. Steve wanted nothing to do with Amy but Tracy gatecrashed his wedding and announced to everyone that he was Amy's father. Karen married Steve anyway and they tried to make their marriage work but her battles with Tracy eventually proved too much for Steve and they separated.

After divorcing Karen, Steve waged war against Tracy for access to Amy. In 2006, he bought the Rovers Return and employed Liz as landlady. He was granted full-time access to Amy in 2007 when Tracy was sent to prison for murdering Charlie Stubbs and in 2009 he married Becky Granger after an affair while he was engaged to Michelle Connor. Steve and Becky were also driven apart by Tracy; in 2010 Tracy was paroled and used Becky's illegal guardianship of her nephew Max Turner to cause trouble, and Becky's poor handling of the situation resulted in Steve throwing her out and Steve had to sell the Rovers to sort out the financial mess his problems with Becky had left him in.

After another one-night stand with Steve, Tracy became pregnant with twins. She and Steve married in 2012, but they separated at the reception when Steve learned that Tracy had lied about her miscarriage being caused by Becky pushing her down the stairs. Steve later got back together with Michelle and married her in 2015. The following year, when his marriage went through a rough patch, he slept with Leanne Battersby with both Leanne and Michelle becoming pregnant with his children. In 2017, Michelle lost their son Ruairi, while Leanne successfully gave birth to Steve's second son, Oliver. When Steve confessed he was Oliver's father to Michelle, she demanded a divorce from him.

Steve currently lives at 15a Victoria Street with his mother Liz.

1989-1994: Early years on the street


Steve arrived in Coronation Street at the age of 15 in October 1989, with twin brother Andy and parents Jim and Liz McDonald. From the start, the lads were high-energy tearaways initially causing aggravation for Alf Roberts. Steve and Andy got up to a lot of mischief, including a joyride in an industrial earth mover and breaking the Corner Shop window. The lads were brought up mainly by their mother because their father Jim was in the army and away more than he was home. When he was home, the hot tempered Jim, whose tirades were often fuelled by whisky and beer, had the boys fearing and resenting him. Steve grew up with little respect for his father but a great deal for his mother, although this didn't stop him from getting into scrapes, no matter how much it worried his mother. Schoolboy pranks turned into illegal activities when Steve was sure he could pull off a scam or two only to find out that the long arm of the law was only a few steps away.

In July 1990, Steve ran away to the Lake District with teenage love Joanne Khan and had to be retrieved and defended against Jim by his mother. The McDonalds didn't have a lot of money and this seemed to fuel Steve's ambitions, always looking for a way to make money.

In 1991, Steve was caught selling stolen car radios and arrested, but refused to name his accomplices. Andy however did give some names and this resulted in him getting beaten up. The stress caused Liz, who was pregnant with her third child, to go into labour and give birth to a very premature daughter, Katie, who only lived for a day. Steve was guilt-stricken at having inadvertently caused his sister's death and went straight to the police and named everyone involved in stolen car radios, allowing him to get off with a fine.

1994-1997: Financial and legal troubles
Steve started a relationship with Fiona Middleton in 1994. Around the same time, he started working at a print shop for Mike Baldwin, but after winning big at the horse races in 1995, he was able to buy the business off Mike. Steve continued to gamble and soon found himself in serious debt to loan sharks. He was then seduced by wealthy teenager Vicky Arden, the granddaughter of Rovers' landlord Alec Gilroy, who had come into a bit of money when her parents died. He started a relationship with her as a method of escaping his financial troubles and married her later the same year.

Vicky became Steve's partner in the print shop but soon afterwards he found himself in legal troubles for purchasing stolen whisky and perverting the course of justice when he claimed to know nothing of it. Steve tried to pin the crime on Vicky but Vicky responded by testifying against him in court. Steve was sentenced to two years in prison in May 1996 and divorced Vicky soon afterwards.

Steve was released from prison in June 1997 and started working for Jim at his building business. However Jim had a drinking problem and during an argument and scuffle on scaffolding, Jim fell into a skip and was paralysed for a time. After Jim's recovery, things started to improve between father and son. They seemed to come to an acceptance of each other.

2000: Start up of Street Cars
In 2000 Steve became involved with local gangster Jez Quigley, from whom he borrowed money to invest in a minicab firm with friend Vikram Desai. When he couldn't pay it back when Jez demanded it, Jez threatened Steve by revealing he'd murdered Tony Horrocks the previous year and would do the same to him. Terrified, Steve went to the police and reported Jez's confession and decided to testify against him in court despite Jez's thugs attempting to scare him off. However Jez was acquitted and he quickly arranged to have Steve killed in revenge and had his thugs deliver a vicious beating. Despite his terrible injuries, Steve barely survived and when Jim found out Jez was responsible went after him and delivered his own beating. Jez was admitted to hospital, and found that by coincidence Steve was on the same ward. Jez decided to finish Steve off himself, but on his way to Steve's room fell over and ruptured his spleen, killing him. Jim confessed to having assaulted Jez and went to jail.

2001-2004: Marriage to Karen and first child
Steve began a relationship with Karen Phillips in 2001. Karen had a £10 bet with Janice Battersby that she could get engaged and subsequently persuaded Steve to propose in the Rovers Return Inn. Karen then bet that she could walk down the aisle and the couple were surprised to find themselves married, each thinking the other would back down. Despite the nature of their wedding, Steve and Karen's marriage was initially successful but in 2003 they split when Steve suspected Karen of having an affair.

In June 2003 Steve had a one night stand with Tracy Barlow. He reconciled with Karen shortly afterwards and Karen decided to divorce Steve so they could remarry with a better wedding ceremony. Tracy revealed she was pregnant and told everyone Roy Cropper was the father but at Christmas admitted to Steve that he was the real father as she had never actually slept with Roy.

Tracy gave birth to a girl in February 2004 but Steve had no interest in his new daughter. Tracy sold the baby to Roy and Hayley Cropper who named her Patience but during Steve and Karen's second wedding revealed to everyone that Steve was the real father. Karen was furious with Steve but married him anyway when he convinced her that he had no interest in Tracy. Tracy renamed the baby Amy Barlow and Steve gradually started to warm to her, though Karen harboured a resentment of Amy primarily due to her rivalry with Tracy. During Christmas, Karen stole Tracy's car with Amy in the back and burned it. Tracy and Steve thought Karen had killed Amy though Amy was actually safe with Roy. After the incident, Steve told Karen to leave as their marriage was over for good.

2005-2008: Short relationships
In March 2005 Steve began dating single mum Louise Hazell but the dalliance soon fizzled out partly due to Tracy's presence on the Street. For a brief period shortly after, he dated Tracy, but his intentions were to try and secure his name as the father on Amy's birth certificate, not because he had feelings for Tracy. Tracy became aware of Steve's scheme, and attempted to prevent Steve access to Amy. The case was taken to court, where Steve was granted legal rights to see his daughter.

In late 2005, he started dating Street Cars employee Ronnie Clayton, a local gangster's estranged wife. In May 2006, she tried to frame him when she accidentally ran down a pensioner in her taxi, but she was eventually caught. Steve's alibi for the crime was that he spent the night with his new business partner and friend Lloyd Mullaney's girlfriend Kelly Crabtree. This led to the temporary closure of Street Cars, when Lloyd refused to work with Steve. Lloyd eventually decided to forgive Steve for his deception, and they were able to re-open the business. Later that year, Steve bought the Rovers Return pub from Fred Elliott and installed his mother as landlady and stepfather Vernon Tomlin as cellarman.

In April 2007 Tracy was sentenced to fifteen years in Redford Prison for the murder of her lover, Charlie Stubbs, and Steve took on Amy full-time. He began a relationship later that year with barmaid Michelle Connor and Michelle moved in with him with her son Ryan. Steve cheated on her in June 2008, having a one-night stand with Becky Granger after he and Michelle had a row. Lloyd told Michelle that Steve had a plan to propose in order to explain Steve's strange behaviour. This put Steve under pressure to follow through with this story, and so Steve proposed to Michelle. However, Michelle found out that the proposal was "false" and Steve later revealed that he "slept on a girls couch" (but claimed he didn't sleep with her). Michelle responded by throwing Steve out of his own home and throwing the expensive engagement ring that cost £7,500 in a skip. Becky then tried to get Steve and Michelle back together but Michelle still told Steve to leave. Michelle and Steve were reunited after he gave her an ultimatum - "we get back together or you move out".

2009-2011: Marriage to Becky
Steve started a relationship with Becky and it wasn't long before they decided to marry. Their wedding was about to take place in March 2009 but when Becky turned up drunk, the registrar cancelled. The second wedding took place in August where they successfully married, but after DC Hooch had planted drugs in Becky's bag on the same day, she was arrested during the wedding reception. Becky narrowly avoided prison.

Steve and Becky wanted to have children, but after Becky miscarried twice, they decided to adopt. In 2010, Becky's sister Kylie gave them a bad adoption reference but then offered to sell her son Max to them for £20,000. The deal went through and Steve and Becky were now Max's guardians. In December, Tracy was released from prison and blackmailed the couple after learning that Max had been bought, which she used gain custody of Amy. In 2011, Steve told social services about the situation with Max and Max was taken into care. The incident put a strain on Steve's relationship with Becky and she left him. Although she later changed her mind, Steve asked for a divorce.

2011-2015: Relationships with Tracy and Michelle
Tracy blackmailed Steve into giving her a job at the Rovers threatening to leave Weatherfield with Amy so Steve obliged in exchange for a custody settlement, before firing her immediately afterwards. In July 2011 Tracy kept trying to seduce Steve and they had a one night stand which left Tracy pregnant with twins. Steve refused to start a relationship with Tracy even after learning of the pregnancy but eventually changed his mind. In December Tracy miscarried but kept it a secret until she fell down the stairs during a confrontation with Becky after which she told Steve that Becky had pushed her causing the miscarriage. Steve proposed to Tracy on Christmas day and bought 13 Coronation Street for him and Tracy to live in.

In January 2012 when Steve and Tracy were due to marry, Becky found Tracy's medical records proving she didn't cause the miscarriage. Becky revealed the truth to Steve during the wedding reception and he broke off with Tracy immediately afterwards but the newlyweds were both legally entitled to the flat at No.13. Tracy refused to move out of No.13 so Steve arranged for it to be built into two separate flats but eventually he decided to sell up.

Later in the same year, Steve began a relationship with Michelle Connor for the second time. In September 2013 Steve bought the Rovers to cheer up Michelle, which she was initially against, but later warmed to the idea of becoming a joint landlord with Steve. Steve moved back into the Rovers with Michelle.

In October 2014 Steve testified at Peter Barlow's trial over the murder of Tina McIntyre as he knew that they had previously been having an affair. Michelle broke up with him soon afterwards when she learned that Steve knew of the affair and around the same time, Steve was diagnosed with depression.

In January 2015 Steve crashed a minibus with the Underworld staff inside, although no-one suffered any permanent injuries. Steve got back together with Michelle in the same month after telling her he had depression. In March Steve proposed to Michelle but she accepted out of pity. When Steve called off the engagement, Michelle proposed to him and the couple married in May. In November Steve went to stay with Andy in Spain but ended up staying longer than planned.

2016-: Two pregnancies
When Steve was still in Spain in early 2016 Michelle started to feel abandoned. She became reacquainted with her teenage fling Will Chatterton in March and it wasn't long before an affair began. By the time Steve returned home the following month, Michelle had left Will, regretting her actions. Eventually in June, the truth came out and the couple separated. Upset over his break-up, Steve arrived at the flat of Leanne Battersby where they had a one night stand. Steve and Michelle reconciled the next day, but a few weeks later Leanne admitted to Steve that she was pregnant with his child. Leanne refused to have an abortion so Steve was forced to keep his paternity a secret.

An oblivious Michelle persuaded Steve to try for a baby with her and Michelle found herself pregnant in August. In October, Steve learned that he may have inherited the disease Myotonic Dystrophy as his father was currently suffering from it. Steve decided to take a genetic test due to the risk of his two unborn children also inheriting the disease but was relieved when the test came back negative.

Michelle and Leanne both had their baby showers in early January 2017. On the same evening, Michelle started to experience abdominal pains, so Leanne took her to Weatherfield General. Steve also arrived and Leanne explained that Michelle needed an emergency scan due to her being 23 weeks pregnant. Michelle went into labour two days later on 11th January 2017. She gave birth to their son, Ruairi, prematurely but he was too underdeveloped to survive.

First and last lines
"Mam, why did we have to have the back bedroom?" (First line)

Background information

 * A four-part spin-off series entitled Street Car Stories was released on 3rd, 5th, 10th and 12th February 2014 and featured comic scenes between Steve and Lloyd Mullaney in the Street Cars cab office.
 * Steve's five month absence from November 2015 to April 2016 was due to actor Simon Gregson taking a break for personal reasons. During this period it was explained that Steve was staying with Andy in Spain.