Caroline Swann (neé Potts) is Doug and Hilary Potts's eldest daughter and Laurel Thomas's sister. As children Hilary favoured Caroline over Laurel, which caused friction in Caroline and Laurel's relationship, to the point where Laurel treated occasions where Hilary criticised Caroline as special events.
Caroline appeared at Doug and Hilary's hospital bedside in May 2007, after they were involved in a car accident whilst returning home from a meal with Laurel and her husband Ashley Thomas. In late 2007 Caroline's husband Ben Swann, is made redundant and so Caroline and Ben move into Hilary and Doug's house while they are at Laurel and Ashley's house. Laurel stays with Caroline in December 2009 whilst her and Ashley's marriage is going through a rough patch. Hilary doesn't attend Laurel's wedding to Marlon Dingle in September 2014.
At Hilary's wake in July 2015, Caroline assumes that Laurel is pregnant as she is not drinking. She asks Laurel's husband Marlon if she is pregnant but Laurel overhears and admits in front of everyone that she is an alcoholic, not pregnant and that she and Marlon's marriage is all but over. Laurel then runs into the house and has to be comforted by Marlon. Doug tries to explain her actions, saying she's lost her mother, to which an angry Caroline responds that she's also lost her mother, yet she has to do everything.