Carly departed on-screen on 4 January 2008, when she goes travelling, an exit storyline that Shirley felt was a fitting end to the character.

Nico's father, Yanis Pappas (Peter Polycarpou), gives him a restaurant in Cyprus and Carly refuses to work there.

She finds employment as a mechanic and is sponsored by her boss, Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), to attend college.

Further animosity occurs when Carly discovers Kevin is not her biological father, and Shirley had a one-night stand with a man named Daniel.

Chelsea does this as she wants to eliminate Carly as competition for her boyfriend Sean Slater (Robert Kazinsky), who has been flirting with her.

This leads to Chelsea and Deano's attempt to frame Sean for an assault on Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker).

Sean is imprisoned and is only released when Carly hands stolen CCTV footage exonerating him over to the police, betraying her brother and Chelsea who are arrested for perverting the course of justice.

Carly believes her family will not forgive her betrayal, so she leaves Walford and takes a job in a gay bar.

Despite Sean's assaults on her brother, Carly briefly resumes a sexual relationship with him, but he has little interest in her as he is besotted with Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner).

She visits his body in the morgue and screams, momentarily asking for support from Shirley, who was with Kevin when he died.

The following day, Carly catches up with Denise, who explains that Shirley is in a bad way because Ben killed Heather.

In 2022, after Mick goes missing at sea on Christmas Day, Denise and Jean find Shirley struggling.

Carly has had an active sex life in the serial, having charged scenes with Jake Moon (Joel Beckett)[2] and Sean Slater (Robert Kazinsky).

[4] Shirley states Carly feels like she has "to put on a brave face but underneath she's cracking up.

"[5] In her final scenes Carly and her stepmother Denise (Diane Parish) decide to go travelling to scatter Kevin's ashes.

[1] Daniel Kilkelly from Digital Spy later stated "exact details of Carly's return storyline are currently being kept under wraps, it is understood that viewers will see her back in Walford to visit Shirley after the truth is finally revealed about Heather Trott's (Cheryl Fergison) murder".

[6] Heather was murdered by Shirley's partner, Phil Mitchell's (Steve McFadden) son Ben (Joshua Pascoe).