she first appears for her father's wedding to pat wicks (pam st. clement) in 1989 and leaves her sister janine butcher (rebecca michael) with frank. she has been looking after janine for most of janine's childhood until she got promoted at work and moved to manchester, deciding to leave janine with frank as he has settled with pat. after frank abandons janine and leaves walford in 1996, janine becomes hostile towards pat so she is sent to manchester with clare off-screen. clare also looks after her other sister diane's (sophie lawrence) son jacques (jack snell), also off-screen, when diane abandons him in 1997. janine returns to walford in 1999 and gets out of control over the years, getting involved with drugs and prostitution; when clare briefly returns to walford in 2002 she is shocked that janine has fallen so far, and upon leaving a few days later she gives janine some money to get back on her feet. on 1 april 2008, shortly before frank's funeral, dot branning (june brown) asks clare's sister diane of her whereabouts, and diane says that clare has already said goodbye to her father after visiting him when he was ill, and is now living in australia with her family.