becomes pregnant. She gives birth to twins Ewan and Stella, but Duncan rejects Claire and the twins. After Duncan leaves in 1998, Claire marries Pete, who loves her children but abuses her. After the Hart family is killed in a boat explosion in January 1999, Roy becomes mentally unbalanced for a time, and kidnaps and threatens to murder Claire. Soon afterwards, Claire leaves town after Pete beats her for defending Roy. In 2000, she returns to Charnham without her twins, who are with her sister. She feuds with Pete and goes into business with Roy. Claire begins a relationship with Roy, whom she used for financial gain. She becomes aware of Roy's interest in Sara and a feud erupts when Claire tries to warn Sara away from Roy by taunting her about her drug addiction. Roy ends his relationship with Claire and begins dating Sara. In 2001, Claire blackmails Pete when she discovered his part in Josh's death, and uses the money to buy a share of the cybercafé. During the police investigation, Claire lies that Pete had loaned her the money, and when Pete is acquitted of Josh's murder, he uses that to proposition her into giving him her shares of the cafe. Claire offers him 5% of her shares. Claire's feud with Pete continues, and she starts a relationship with his rival Tom Shackleford, as well as a brief affair with George Shackleford. Claire helps Tom when he flees Charnham with his daughter, Harriet, when Pete attempts to turn her against him. As revenge, Pete tells Claire that Tom had planned to run away with his ex-partner Kate, making Claire jealous. Claire begs Tom to stay, but he decides to leave with Kate and Harriet, leading to a car accident caused by Pete, which kills Kate. In 2002, when Pete is dating Charlotte, rumours circulate that he had slept with Claire. When Charlotte begins acting secretive, Claire decides to investigate her behaviour to destroy their relationship, only to discover that Charlotte had been meeting her estranged younger sister Lucy. Claire become close with another of Pete's nemeses, Johnny. They decide to get revenge on Pete by faking Claire's murder and framing Pete for it. Pete finds out and confronts Claire. She trashes her house to make it seem like Pete had broken in and murdered her. However the plan was ruined by Ben, who is infatuated with her.