Sharon (Carla & Rob's mother)

Sharon Donovan was the alcoholic mother of Carla Connor and Rob Donovan. She gave birth to Carla in January 1975, nine months after a one night stand with Johnny Connor. Johnny knew Carla was more likely his child he shoved it to the back of his mind, although he did continue paying child support to Sharon in secret. A couple of so years after Carla's birth, Sharon had a second son called Rob to another man.

In December 1993 - just over 19 years since their one night stand - a drunken Sharon revealed to Johnny's wife Lou that Carla was his child. This led to an unfortunate chain or events when in distress Lou ran away and was struck by a drunk driver and killed, leaving Johnny widowed and his two children Aidan and Kate motherless. Around this time a drunk Sharon would tell Rob about Carla's true parentage, although he wasn't too sure she was telling the truth.

At some point in the early 2000s Sharon got into a debt with drug dealers. As Carla had moved on with her new husband Paul Connor and never looked back, Rob found himself taking part in an armed robbery as a getaway driver in order to pay the debt, but this lead to his arrest and sentenced to eight years at Strangeways.

In June 2011 Sharon passed away, the news of which was relayed to Carla by a still imprisoned Rob.

In 2015 the truth of Johnny being Carla's father came back to haunt him when Rob (who was now serving a second stint in prison for the murder of Tina McIntyre) used the information to try and blackmail ten grand out of him. The blackmail failed as Johnny eventually told Carla the truth and Aidan and Kate were later informed.