By 2003, Karen McDonald was regretting her wedding of two years previous to Steve McDonald for not being the ceremony of her girlhood dreams but a cheap and cheerful do at Weatherfield Register Office.
Karen formulated a typically mad plan for her and Steve to get divorced and remarry but this time in style. To this end, she decided that for verisimilitude, it should appear as if they had fallen out because of Steve's infidelities (two in number) and then they could reconcile afterwards. Both sides took to the deception with a little too much eagerness and it was Karen who was upset when she saw Steve with Sonia Marshall in the Rovers. After another row between the two, Karen reached the conclusion that it was being Mrs McDonald that mattered and not the form that the ceremony had taken. She asked Steve to reconsider but matters were well in hand and the decree absolute was being processed in Weatherfield County Court that day. Karen rushed there to stop matters but after being held up by a Security Guard at the entrance, made it to the requisite room where the Receptionist went and checked but came back to say that the decree absolute had already been stamped and she was no longer married.