Arrowverse Wiki
Advertisement
Arrowverse Wiki


"So sweet of you to adopt two white boys. They need a good role model"
—To Dig about Tommy and Oliver[src]


Carly Diggle is a former waitress at a Big Belly Burger restaurant, the wife of the late Andy Diggle, the mother of A.J. Diggle, and the sister-in-law/ex-girlfriend of John Diggle.

Biography

Early life and marriage

Carly was born and raised in Starling City. While in high school she was sort of the ugly duckling and not very popular between boys,[1] however she got more attractive as she reached adulthood.

At some point in her life she met and married Andy Diggle, with whom she had a son, A.J.; despite also being attracted and very close to his brother John.

Sometime after 2010, while working as a bodyguard, Andy was shot by Deadshot and presumed dead, leaving Carly a widow.[2]

Relationship with her brother-in-law

When John brings Oliver and Tommy to the Big Belly Burger restaurant, she advises him to be careful and not end up like his brother.[2]

She and John are seen sitting at a table discussing his career. She advises him to move on from his current occupation, John partially agrees saying that he wants to feel like he's helping people again, and not just protecting spoiled rich kids.[3]

Carly calls John to come and advise a depressed Oliver over the recent events regarding Helena Bertinelli.[4]

She serves Ted Gaynor a piece of cake. Ted then goes onto to explain to John that Carly likes him in which John responds that is his sister-in-law, but Ted says not anymore because his brother is dead. She is later kidnapped by Ted Gaynor to blackmail John to help him with a heist, John shoots a grenade launcher and allows Carly to escape and share a kiss with John.[5]

When Felicity, Oliver and John are at Big Belly Burger, Oliver agrees to ask out McKenna as long as John asks out Carly. He makes plans with her for dinner, although it does not end well due to him inadvertently mentioned Andy and thus saddened her.[1]

After he found out Deadshot is still alive, John becomes determined to found him and begins to get distant from Carly,[6] until he realize he can't love her and hate him at the same time, leading the couple to break-up.[7]

Some time after that, it has been presumed that she has moved from Starling City to somewhere safer with her son.

Personality

Carly is clearly much in love with Andy, but is equally obviously attracted to John, at least by the time of the series. She has a sense of fun which has not been seen in John but brought that out in him. They both thought about Andy a lot, and that may well have prevented any real relationship between them. At work, Carly was friendly but professional with customers, and definitely didn't want John 'handling' her problems for her. She took good care of her son, and he is clearly the center of her world.

Carly seems to be quite wise as when John came to her for advice on whether or not he should do something he's not too confident he should do (being a vigilante with Oliver) without telling her unnecessary details to which she responded, it can't be wrong if he believes in it. This ultimately convinced Diggle to join Oliver as his partner.

Appearances

Arrow

Season 1

Season 2

Season 4


DC's Legends of Tomorrow

Season 3

Comics

Arrow

Trivia

  • Carly and Diggle's break-up takes place "offscreen" between Seasons 1 and 2, and Carly is not seen again after that despite being mentioned.

References

Advertisement