Yvonne Toni Marie Karib[1] was the wife of Kash Karib, with whom she has two children, Chesney and Meena. She owned and ran the local shop, and previously employed Ian Gallagher, who had an affair with her husband. At first she was angry to discover Kash was gay, but later accepted it to keep her marriage together for her children's sake. She was a hard-nosed businesswoman who was not averse to breaking the law to make a bit of extra profit. Although she stood by her gay husband, he eventually went a step too far and secretly got them into debt that resulted in Yvonne losing her house and owing large sums again her one of the most important things to her, her shop. To solve both their problems Yvonne insisted Kash fake his death and disappear with even the couples children believing him dead. Yvonne later started a serious relationship with Stan Waterman, who she lived with in Pakistan but he left her because it was to hot.
Yvonne converted to Islam to marry Kash, and was far more devout than her estranged husband. Although white, she always wore Asian dress and was originally never seen without a hijab, although she no longer wears one.
It is implied that Yvonne came from a racist family, due to her refusal to go home to them after being made homeless in the last episode of Series 4. During this episode, Yvonne moved into the house between the Gallaghers and the Maguires after arranging to rent it from Fiona and Steve. Series 5 saw her begin a relationship with police officer Stan Waterman, despite the fact that she was technically still married to Kash, who it was revealed faked his own death to escape creditors.
In Series 6, Kash returned, demanding money and threatening to tell their children that it was her idea to fake his death. Unable to meet with his demands, Yvonne and Stan resorted to desperate measures and planned to kill Kash to hide their secret; Yvonne couldn't go through it, and neither could Stan. Luckily for them, Kash died in an accidental fire at her corner shop, caused by Chesney, who confronted his father before the fire got too severe, and found out about the scam his father pulled with his mother. In anger, Chesney knocked Kash unconscious with a baseball bat, and left him to die in the flames. Chesney would soon resent his mother for her lies, but finally forgave her with some desperate cries for help from Yvonne.
In series 7, Yvonne made the decision to finally sell up her business, and so she sold the corner shop to Joe Pritchard, before she and Stan left to move to India. Unbeknown to Yvonne however, Joe had manipulated events in his favor in order to convince her to sell him the shop. Joe ran the shop with Chesney who he promised to look after in his mother's absence but Joe was soon murdered in an accident by Ian Gallagher. Chesney took control of the shop afterward, with it being alluded that the shop was now owned or at least bank rolled by his grandfather who send Chesney's cousin Sita Desai to help him run the shop and report back to him on events.
Return
Elliot Tittensor posted a comment on his Twitter, on the 8/1/13, saying that he may be returning to Chatsworth for the final series to reprise his role of Carl, along with Yvonne's actress Kelli Hollis. An article on Digital Spy confirms their return, along with Lip Gallagher, Fiona Gallagher, Monica Gallagher, and Kevin Ball.
Yvonne would appear in the final episode, 1114, to watch over the shop, as Chesney and his newly-pregnant girlfriend, Mary Mae, took some time off. When Frank saw her in the shop for the first time in several years, he expressed no surprise at her return, to which Yvonne commented that Frank was an "ignorant piece of shit". Yvonne also had to put up with Remona's constant ranting, and Patreesha's condescension.
Notes
- Kelli Hollis who plays Yvonne joined the cast of long running British Soap Opera Emmerdale in late 2011. She joined Chris Bisson who played her husband Kash in Shameless who joined the soap months before. Her character in Emmerdale is also a lesbian, showing mirrors of her role and story lines as Yvonne.
- In Episode 5 of Series 1, Yvonne and Kash attended a parent's evening at the same high school both Lip and Ian Gallagher attended. In the scene, they were accompanied by two adolescent boys. Later, in Episode 14 of Series 6, Yvonne admitted to having been a registered foster-parent, so this could serve as the explanation for the seeming discrepancy in the storyline.
- It is revealed in the Virtual Tour of Chatsworth that in the backroom of Chesney's shop is a letter from Yvonne posted from Pakistan. In the letter, Yvonne complains that Stan Waterman has gone missing, and speculates that he has intentionally left her.
