From the moment Claire (Hayley Erin) arrived on The Young and the Restless, there has been a lot of mystery surrounding just who she is and what she wants. She’s managed to score a job working for Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) at Newman Enterprises as her assistant, but it's her interactions with the Newman clan that rings a bit odd.
Claire is rather knowledgeable about the Newman family and has had some self-described "fan girl" moments, most recently with Victoria (Amelia Heinle). The new Newman Media employee rattled off Victoria’s resume in a slightly eerie way.
But nothing was more awkward than seeing Claire alone at her place looking at various articles about the Newmans and staring at a picture of Victoria and Nikki. Claire has also been creating moments with Nate (Sean Dominic) as if she hopes to get close to Victoria’s boyfriend. This special attention to Victoria is largely why we think Claire is involved in a plot targeting the Newman heiress.
In The Young and the Restless episode airing on November 6, Claire gets a phone call from a woman she refers to as Aunt Jordan. This unseen person seemingly applies pressure on Claire to get something done, and Claire replies, "Yes, I understand. I just thought I’d have more time. I’m making progress." She later assures Aunt Jordan that she’ll handle matters.
This is confirmation that Claire is up to something and the first time fans get a hint that she’s working with someone. While we’ve previously theorized that Claire could be after Victoria because of a tie to Sabrina (Raya Meddine), Victoria’s deceased friend who is also Victor’s (Eric Braeden) dead wife, the mention of this Aunt Jordan now has us further questioning who this mystery aunt is, and how she may be connected to the Newmans.
It’s entirely possible that this offscreen character Jordan could be Sabrina’s sister and is fueling Claire in a revenge plot to avenge her death. However, let’s move away from Sabrina for a moment and explore other possible theories.
What if Claire is the daughter of Victoria’s villainous dead husband, Ashland Locke (Robert Newman), and Jordan is his sister? Ashland was known for hiding the truth, so it’s not a stretch to think that he never shared with Victoria he had an adult daughter or even a sister. Given how Ashland was murdered and his death was covered up by the Newmans, if Claire is related to him, we see why she would be out for payback.
Allow us to introduce one more possible connection Aunt Jordan and Claire may have to the Genoa City fold. Longtime viewers will remember that once upon a time, Victoria was madly in love with Ryan McNeil (Scott Reeves).
Unfortunately for the pair, he had a deranged ex named Tricia Dennison (Sabryn Genet) who was obsessed with winning Ryan back and hated Victoria. Tricia’s obsession and hatred ultimately drove her to frame Victor for sexual assault and try and shoot Victoria. Tricia shot and killed Ryan instead, and since that deadly event, she’s seemingly been locked away in an asylum, never heard from again.
However, is it possible she had a child named Claire? Furthermore, does Claire have it in her mind that Victoria and the Newmans ruined Tricia’s life? Now it wasn’t known during Tricia’s stint on the show that she had a child, but in the soap opera world, anything is possible.
We should also add that Tricia did have a sister, but her name was Megan (Ashley Jones), not Jordan. However, Megan could have certainly decided to go by Jordan if our Tricia theory proves to be true.
What all of this boils down to, is that fans need to stay tuned to the soap to find out who Claire really is and what she really wants. If we had to guess though, we’d probably go with the Ashland Locke angle.
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus.
