Coronation Street Carla actress’ life from soap co-star romance to hidden health struggle
Alison King's life away from Coronation Street couldn't be more different from her on-screen Weatherfield alter-ego's
Alison King has been a staple on Coronation Street for years – but what do we know about her life away from the cobbles?
The actress joined the ITV soap in 2006, as Carla Connor, the strong-willed owner of Underworld. Since then, it’s fair to say she has become a soap icon, and has played a part in several big storylines.
From steamy affairs to battles with alcoholism, Carla’s time in Weatherfield has not been short of drama. At the moment, her world has been turned upside down following stepdaughter Betsy Swain (Sydney Martin) having a stroke.
But which Coronation Street star did actress Alison previously date? And what health crisis did she suffer while filming the show? Here we look at Alison’s life…
Alison’s romance with Corrie star
Alison had a five-year relationship with former Coronation Street star Philip Middlemiss, who played Des Barnes. They reportedly met at a Tenerife bar in March 1995, and by November 1996, Phillip told the Scottish Daily Record: “I’ve never been happier. She is a wonderful girl. I love her to death.”
However, by 2000, the pair had parted ways. According to IMBD, Phillip confessed: “I was in love with Allie. She’s the only person I’ve ever really loved.”
“But she was working in London and I was in Manchester. In another life, if I had been a bus driver and she had worked at the local baker’s shop, we would have got married and had kids by now,” he added.
Alison’s engagement and daughter
She is a proud mum to a daughter (Image: ITV)Alison was also previously engaged to Adam Huckett, a Coronation Street sound technician, with whom she shares her daughter Daisy, now 17, with. They never married and split in 2012.
In 2009, Alison candidly opened up about adjusting to life as a new mother. She told Digital Spy: “Being a new mum runs over you like a steamroller at first. I was working quite hard up until the birth and then the birth resulted in an operation – I had to have an emergency C-section.
“Then it’s just pure hard work and I never realised it would be this hard! The sleep deprivation is just exhausting but she’s excellent and so funny now. She’s worth everything.”
In November 2018, Alison was pictured with a new ‘mystery man’, who she revealed was IT consultant David Stuckley, who was nine years her junior, when they announced their engagement a year later.
She told OK! magazine: “It was just a few days after our one-year anniversary. I had an inkling he was going to pop the question because he kept putting something on my finger and going, ‘Right, close your eyes and forget this ever happened!’
“We’d also discussed marriage, too. I think we both went from ‘No, we don’t ever need to get married’, to ‘Oh, we really want to get married!'”
But in May 2022 it was reported the pair had split after ‘growing apart’ during lockdown.
Alison on having surgery
Alison sucked her thumb when she was a child which left her feeling self-conscious about her teeth. As a drama student she underwent corrective surgery, but in 2015 admitted to having more work done.
She told dentistry.co.uk: “As an actress onscreen I’d begun to notice how my top and bottom front teeth had been pushed into the middle where my thumb had been.
“The inside bottom four teeth around the gum line were much shorter than the rest of the teeth.
“It was during my time at drama school that I decided to undergo cosmetic surgery at a dental practice in London. However, I wasn’t completely satisfied with the final result and always felt there was room for improvement.”
Alison’s secret health battle
Speaking about her secret health battle in a TikTok about working on the show, she said: “At the beginning of the year, my nervous system seemed to need rebalancing. I lost my mum last year, last August.
And then at the beginning of this year, I got a chest infection from two of the gorgeous little babies at work. Actually, when we were filming the wedding, I had been coughing and coughing and coughing. My right lung was hurting, my chest was hurting anyway, it was sick of the coughing, it was inflamed.”
Alison explained how she was struggling to breathe at times and couldn’t even exercise.
“Because of my nervous system and not doing anything, I was really struggling to breathe a full breath. I couldn’t swim, which I do all the time because that’s my therapy. I couldn’t do anything,” she said.
Alison turned to reflexology and Reiki to help with her symptoms, and says she is feeling “good and happy”. However, since getting the infection, she has experienced a twitch in her eye.
