Richard Burgi as Karl Mayer

Karl Mayer, on the television series Desperate Housewives, is played by Richard Burgi. Although Karl, a lawyer, has continued to display strong feelings for his ex-wife Susan, the failure of their marriage can be contributed to his infidelity. Karl was the one who abandoned Susan and their daughter, Julie, in order to live a new life with his secretary, Brandi.

Like many divorced couples, Karl and Susan share custody of Julie, and this arrangement has allowed Karl to become reacquainted with Susan after their separation. When he and Brandi broke up, he immediately turned to Susan and sought her help, but later on began dating her arch-nemesis, Edie Britt. Although Susan claimed that she no longer had feelings for Karl (she had, in fact, started dating Mike Delfino), Karl’s relationship with Edie greatly bothered her, especially when he confessed that he had flirted with Edie while he was still married to Susan.

In the same way, even though things between him and Edie were working out well, Karl grew jealous of Mike and tried different ways to get in between his ex-wife and her new boyfriend. When Susan and Mike broke up (because of their own personal issues), Karl offered his friendship to Susan, but maintained his relationship with Edie. To complicate things further, Karl went behind Edie’s back and remarried Susan so that she could get health insurance, which in turn would pay for her spleen operation.

Edie found out about the fake marriage after Karl proposed to her. In retaliation, Edie asked Susan to throw her an extravagant bridal shower. Susan happily agreed, but on the day of the event, she realized that Karl still had feelings for her. Not wanting to cause any more trouble, Susan confronted Karl, but in his utter selfishness, Karl told her that he would be more than willing to leave Edie if it would mean reconciliation between him and Susan. Susan rejected Karl, but he was not deterred, and later on, successfully tricked Susan into believing he and Edie were no longer together. Consequently, Karl and Susan slept together, and when Edie found out, she burned Susan’s house to the ground.



(Photo courtesy of ABC)