Clare Abshire

* Adult
* Young

**Clare Abshire** is the main character in the HBO Max original series, *The Time Traveler's Wife*. She is portrayed by Rose Leslie, Caitlin Shorey, and Everleigh McDonell.

Clare is fiery, clever and unstoppable — and for most of her life she's had an amazing secret. Since she was 6 years old, Clare has had an imaginary friend: a kind and funny man, sometimes old, sometimes young, who appears in the woods behind her house and tells her tales of the future.

Visits from the mysterious Henry are the bright spots in the tedium of her childhood. As the years pass and she grows into a beautiful young woman, she starts to realize her friend is not imaginary — he's a time traveler, visiting from the future. And he's not just from any old future, he's from her future.

Clare has a literal date with destiny. One day she's going to meet a young man called Henry DeTamble, whom she'll know very well but who won't recognize her at all, and she will become the time traveler's wife.

## Biography

### Sixteen

Clare, now a young woman, strives for a semblance of normalcy while also beginning to develop a sexual interest in her time traveler, Henry. She sketches him fondly while he poses for her on their rock in their clearing. A 41-year-old Henry visits Clare. She goads him by not putting clothes in his box, luring him into playing a game of checkers - each piece he takes is worth one article of clothing. He plays remarkably well which disappoints her. She tries to make advances on him, but he refuses her. They go out for ice cream so she can "cool down". This is their first public outing, and he takes note of her observances of other friends and a boy. She brushes off his questions that she wants to hang out with them.

The next time Henry visits, Clare leaves him a sandwich along with a note apologizing for skipping their meeting as she's at a party. She and her friends happily dance, ogle shirtless boys at the pool, and then Clare's friends ask her about the old guy she had ice cream with. Clare covers up the truth by saying he's just a friend, though they believe he's a married man having an affair with her. They reiterate a point Clare's heard before - that she'll never end up with Henry. As she returns to the party, a boy she was ogling before named Jason Everleigh asks her to hang out so she happily agrees. Later that night, Clare runs through the meadow screaming for Henry, who is still at their spot. He leaps up and tries to reach Clare, though she vanishes seconds before they can meet. Clare collapses on the ground sobbing.

She waits for Henry and ultimately, a 32-year-old Henry visits her. She's notably different in her attitude and demeanor. She's passed her driver's test and makes him go for a drive with her. She becomes reckless and drives like a maniac as she tempts fate. She's realized she can't die as Henry knows her in the future, meaning she's invincible. He argues that she can still hurt or kill someone else, or seriously harm herself. She doesn't seem to care as she swerves between lanes of the highway, drives in the wrong direction, and closes her eyes. She asks him several questions about their future together and why he's met her family before, all of which he tries to avoid answering. They eventually skid to a stop by the bluffs.

He angrily asks what is wrong with her, so she angrily remarks it's about time he asked. Henry made her understand that the future is built on the choices she makes now. She might not die, but she could have killed multiple families and been responsible for her mistake for the rest of her life. She asks if he's been arrested, which he has, though he usually vanishes before serious charges can be pressed. Clare wants him to kill a boy named Jason for her, as he hurt her. Henry wants to know what he did but she refuses to tell him, asking that he trust her when it comes to this. Henry ultimately does and arranges for his 24-year-old self to have an alibi. He wants Clare to have an alibi too but she refuses as she wants to watch. She has a gun that she stole from her father and Henry makes a stop at a convenient store for duct tape and a blue marker.

They kidnap Jason from his house and put him in the trunk for her car. She hears him breathing wrong and realizes that Henry didn't get Jason's inhaler. She makes him go back inside to get it, then, as they drive, she realizes they can't kill Jason - only hurt him. Henry jokes that he figured they wouldn't kill Jason after she made him get the inhaler. Clare, emotional, reveals that what Jason did to her isn't funny or a joking matter. She asks if he wants to see what Jason did and he does. She gets out of the car and takes off her shirt, revealing large bruises on her torso, arms, back, and shoulders. Henry holds her as she recounts the events of the night - she and Jason went to a place where people go to hang out. She changed her mind about having sex which he didn't think was fair to him or something she was allowed to do. He got angry and hurt her as punishment, even burning the top of her breast with the cigarette he was smoking. Henry asks if Jason raped her, though Clare denies the assault. Henry is ready to kill Jason but Clare refuses to let him as she only wants Jason to suffer as she did.

They duct tape Jason to a tree as they debate how to hurt him. Jason argues his innocence by referencing texts Clare sent him after the assault that thank him for a great time. Clare explains to Henry that she did send those texts but that she was scared of what he would do if she didn't. She didn't have a great time, something Henry completely understands. Jason sticks to his story that Clare likes it that way, angering Henry even further as he continues to punch the boy while denying Clare's interests. Jason asks how he would know and Henry emotionally screams out that he's her husband and that's how he knows. Clare, despite her conflicting beliefs over the validity of their future, is left surprised by his revelation. He turns to face her as he begins to cough, about to disappear again. She begs him not to go now but he doesn't have a choice. He gives her the marker he bought - he's not sure why, but he thinks she'll need it. After Henry vanishes, Clare decides the right course of action. She calls every girl she knows and invites them to her location with the only stipulation being that they could only come if Jason had hurt them. As girls arrived they wrote the stories of what happened to them on Jason's body and the duct tape around him. Jason became her first sculpture and the catalyst of her choice to become an artist.

### Eighteen

The last time Clare has a visit from Henry is when she's eighteen.

### Twenty

Now a young art student, Clare leaves class early to head for the Newberry Library to check out a book. She unexpectedly meets the modern-day version of Henry DeTamble, remarking on his last name taking getting used to. She also didn't know he's a librarian. He doesn't recognize her but she makes it apparent that she knows of his condition, which is how they've met - just in the wrong order. She knows his squished strawberry-shaped birthmark on the inside of his foot and the scar on his forehead that he never likes to talk about. Both completely enthralled with one another, they agree to meet for dinner.

He brings her flowers which is new, as he's never brought flowers for her before. She explains that he first appeared to her when she was six and has visited her 152 times over the past 14 years. She presents a notebook full of dates of when he visited her, having been given the dates by an older version of Henry, who memorized them from the book she's presenting to him now. The oldest she's seen him is in his forties and youngest in his thirties. He asks a flurry of questions at her request, including any sexual proclivities. She admits there is one - she's going to marry him someday. She explains that he told her that once and she has no reason not to believe him. Henry is taken aback as he's non-committal and adverse to the idea, but tries to brush off his concerns. They exchange witty banter before leaving the restaurant together.

They go to his apartment which he properly cleaned up before leaving. He sets an ambiance before they make out, excusing an interruptions of her finding a baby tooth. He explains that every part of him travels through time - even the baby tooth he put under his pillow as a child. He explains that she should know that sometimes there's blood when he travels, meaning that somewhere out there, an older version of him gets hurt. She already knows but he refuses to let her elaborate about his future. He only cares that it's not today. They have sex and she goes to the bathroom after, only to return in a woman's robe to an expectant Henry.

She advises him not to hide things in the bottom drawer as it's the first place she looked. She throws another woman's bra at him before collecting her things in a flurry. He tries to defend himself as she didn't ask if he was single, a fact she thinks he would have mentioned between the restaurant and the bed. He does have a girlfriend named Ingrid, but didn't want to tell Clare as he wanted to sleep with her. She snaps back that Ingrid should be careful as she's here now, prompting Henry to point out how crazy that makes her sound. His remark that she wasn't crazy enough not to sleep with earns a shoe being thrown at his head, which he dodges. She calls him an asshole then runs out of the apartment.

She retreats to a bar where she brushes off a man's advances. As she sits, Henry approaches her to apologize, as he watched the ordeal for five minutes. She's confused as she just sat down. He places her shoe on the table and she looks up, realizing that a 36-year-old Henry is in front of her. Clare is relieved to see her Henry but wonders if the big secret he always kept from her is that he's a secret asshole. He explains that is every man's secret. They banter over his younger self being hotter and in better shape, though Clare grumbles over the remarks. Henry explains that time travel has never done one good thing for the man who is standing across the street impatiently staring at them. For that Henry, the future is the scariest thing of all, because anyone can stand any kind of torture except hope. She wonders how that Henry becomes the one in front of her. She's jealous of her older self who gets the good Henry while she gets a dick. She wonders if he gets hit by a meteor or something. He did - a meteor named Clare. She admits to forming herself around the idea of him and is surprised to learn that he did the same. He implores her to give him a second chance as the guy out there has a good heart. He leaves the bar and Clare watches the two Henry's argue on the street before the eldest vanishes.

## Physical Appearance

Clare is a beautiful young woman with long red hair, pale skin, freckles, and small features. She's always had a slender build and favored light colors for her clothing palette.

## Notes and Trivia

* Clare was raped when she was sixteen, an event she never told Henry the full truth about. She revealed only that she was physically assaulted, not sexually. In the book, Clare was not raped. Her “first time” was with Henry.

## References

1. ↑ HBO Max: The Time Traveler's Wife Official Site
2. ↑ Season 1, Episode 5
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *The Time Traveler's Wife*, Season 1, Episode 3
4. ↑ *The Time Traveler's Wife*, Season 1, Episode 1