Karl Munro is the husband of Stella Munro, the current landlady of the Rovers Return Inn.
During his time in Coronation Street, Karl had an affair with Sunita Alahan which had led to his separation of Stella. After being thrown out of Sunita's house due to his laziness, Karl had took a darker route in desperation to win Stella back, including kidnapping her and later burning her partner Jason Grimshaw's van. After setting the Rovers on fire he indirectly killed Toni Griffiths and later killed Sunita in hospital as she had followed him in the pub and got trapped.
Over the next few months Karl began to settle down with Stella, while trying to hide his guilt with the Rovers fire and Sunita's death. He had met his match after being found out on his wedding day after Jason and Dev Alahan pieced together Karl's involvement in the fire, and he had later surrendered to the police while trying to hold Stella hostage in the Rovers.
Biography
1963-2011: Background
Karl was a cab driver who had grown up in Manchester. He first met Stella in 2006 when she was needing a ride when stuck in the rain, and he arrived and gave her a ride home. Shortly after they began to enter a relationship, however it began to follow with Karl cheating several times.
2011-2012: Arrival in Coronation Street
In June 2011 Karl arrived in Coronation Street along with Stella and her daughter Eva Price when she had got herself a job as landlady at the Rovers Return, and they all moved in with the pub's owner Steve McDonald.
Karl got a job at Street Cars in June 2011. Later in the year, he had won himself £1,000 from Ciaran McCarthy after playing poker with some of the lads in the back room of the Rovers. This was Ciaran's and Michelle Connor's wedding money, but Karl went and spent it at Barlow's Bookies and didn't give Ciaran the money back.
Karl developed a gambling addiction, and went to spend his Street Cars fares at the The Sunset Casino, but despite winning a lot of money, he had lost it all on one gamble. When Lloyd Mullaney questioned him about being absent all day, he made up the story that his car had broken down. Unbeknownst to Karl, Lloyd had tried to kiss Stella after helping her in the Rovers, as she was supporting him after his break-up with Cheryl Gray.
2012-2013: Affair with Sunita
In 2012 he started an affair with Sunita Alahan and began creeping about and almost got caught out by Dev and Kevin Webster. In July, Karl resumed his affair with Sunita for one night until Stella and her daughters Leanne and Eva came back to the Rovers to see Karl and Sunita. After that Stella broke up with Karl and banged on Sunita's door causing several of the neighbours to emerge. Stella then slapped former friend Sunita before calling her a slag just as Dev came out. Later that night Karl had to sleep in his cab after Stella threw him and his belongings out. However he was sacked by Lloyd the next morning.
Karl moved in with Sunita at 7 Coronation Street after Dev allowed her to continue living there. However Karl still missed Stella and began to regret his actions and disliked being with Sunita. Several times Karl pleaded with Stella to take him back, however she kept refusing. When her mother, Gloria turned up on the scene, Karl began asking her to talk to Stella, with no avail. When Karl came to realisation that Sunita had deleted his text message on the night she wanted to rekindle their romance, he angrily confronted her. He left, and returned to find Sunita changing the locks of the house. Karl later moved into a bedsit, and begged Steve to give him his job back, which Steve agreed to after talking with Stella.
In 2013 Karl began to spiral out of control and it was clear he was still missing Stella. When Gloria's new fiancé Eric Babbage passed away, Karl offered his support by comforting Gloria and helped out behind the bar. However he was still in love with Stella and wasn't happy with her relationship with Jason Grimshaw and tried to convince her that it wouldn't work as he was younger than her. When she got a cab back after a meeting with the brewery, Karl picked her up and took her away for a talk. Karl broke down and a sympathetic Stella comforted him, but said he should try and move on and stop seeing her. The next day he returned, only for Gloria to blurt out about Karl locking Stella in the taxi, which prompted Lloyd and Steve to sack him a second time, and a smug Sunita looking on in glee. Karl later visited Sunita and threatened her that he wasn't going anywhere. The next day, Karl stole Jason's van and torched it and gave Jason's description to the police. However Jason had an alibi that he was in the Rovers at the time. Stella, who didn't think Karl could be capable of doing such a thing, got him a job working for Owen Armstrong at the Builder's Yard.
2013 onwards: Rovers Fire, back with Stella and downfall
Karl's jealousy of Jason and Stella began to grow and on the evening of 18th March, as other Coronation Street residents were out partying at Nick's Bistro, Karl secretly let himself into the Rovers' cellar and using alcohol as an accelerant, set fire to a piece of paper. Sunita - who had followed Karl down the ginnel - spotted him and immediately asked for an explanation on what he was doing. She tried to escape from the cellar, but Karl grabbed her and pushed her down the stairs.
Sunita landed next to the roaring flames and got knocked unconscious by the push. Karl was shocked to see his ex-girlfriend lying on the floor and quickly ran down the stairs, but he discovered that Sunita was not moving. Panicked and thinking that he has killed Sunita, he ran out of the pub, leaving her to get covered in flames.
Karl returned to the party just in time to join in with the rest of the boys for the finale of the Full Monty. As Norris Cole and Emily Bishop came out of No.3 commenting on the noise coming from the Bistro, they spotted the fire and called the fire brigade. When Karl realised that Stella was in the Rovers, he used the spare set of keys to rescue her. They made their way into the bedroom, where firefighter Toni Griffiths aided them out. Toni was killed in the process.
Convinced that she owed her life to Karl, Stella asked him to move in at 13 Coronation Street where the Price family were temporarily living, and although Jason didn't approve, he went along with the arrangement. Stella promptly dumped Jason and asked Karl to accompany her to Sunita's funeral. At the Crematorium, Karl broke down and admitted to Stella that he killed Sunita - although she didn't believe him and misread his confession. Stella and Karl then shared a kiss, before pulling back. Shortly after this, the pair rekindled their relationship.
Stella soon accepted Karl's proposal. Just prior to their wedding day, Karl admitted to Jason that he had torched his van, which led to Jason and Dev believing that Karl could have torched the Rovers. Upon learning that Craig Tinker had seen him exiting the pub on the night of the fire, Karl convinced the lad that he was responsible and threatened to kill his mother should he open his mouth. Realising that something was terribly amiss, Beth, Dev and Kirk Sutherland coaxed the information out of Craig just after he had run away and he admitted to dropping a discarded cigarette in the Rovers' yard. However, explaining that the fire started in the cellar, they informed Craig that it was Karl who was the real killer. Jason took Craig to the police station to make a statement, while Dev ensnared Karl in the pub. The pair began to fight and Dev was knocked unconscious. As Stella arrived at the pub and witnessed an injured Dev on the floor, Karl revealed all. The police arrived as Karl threatened to blow up the Rovers. In his final moments as a free man, Karl held Stella in the pub's cellar but she managed to persuade him not to keep running and he was subsequently arrested.