During Series 5, Jamie does his best to avoid joining the family business. He and Karen take over The Jockey, and things go smoothly until Karen miscarries early in Series 6. She distances herself from him, questioning if she would want to have a child that would grow up in the Maguire family. Eventually, the two separate after Karen refuses put a "Maguire" on the pub's license with her. It is during this time that Karen begins sleeping with Joe Pritchard (Ben Batt), able to break it off with her increasingly controlling lover only after she threatens to lie to the Maguires and tell them he continued to physically abuse Mandy (Samantha Siddall), Jamie's sister. Jamie moves home with Karen, and she soon finds out she's pregnant again, not sure if the father was Jamie or Joe.