McLeod's Daughters: It's been 20 years since one of the most traumatic deaths on Aussie TV

Australia in 2003 was a different time. John Howard was prime minister. Australian Idol premiered its first-ever season, with Guy Sebastian taking out the crown. Finding Nemo was in cinemas. And many of us went to bed at night crying ourselves to sleep over a particularly traumatic episode of McLeod's Daughters.

Long before we carried the scars of Patrick Reid on Offspring, or Bridget Parker on Neighbours, there was Claire McLeod from McLeod's Daughters.

If that's not enough to unlock a visceral childhood (or adulthood) wound in you and invoke memories of immediate trauma, let me set the scene.

The year was 2003 and McLeod's Daughters was one of the most successful shows on Aussie TV. The show followed two sisters, Tess (Bridie Carter) and Claire (Lisa Chappell), as they reunited after 20 years apart after inheriting their family's cattle station, Drover's Run.

Then, in Season 3 of the show, something unforgivable happened: after actress Lisa Chappell decided she wanted to depart the show, Claire McLeod was killed off in a tragic accident.

What happened to Claire McLeod?

It was a seemingly normal morning on Drover's Run when the fatal accident happened: Claire and Tess were out driving to pick up party supplies with Claire's infant daughter Charlotte. Claire's partner Alex kisses her goodbye before sneakily going back and propping an engagement ring on her pillow.

With the benefit of hindsight, that s*** hurts.

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On the drive home, Claire hit a pothole, causing the car to spin off the road, narrowly missing a tree, before Claire manages to slam on the brakes just before they go over the cliff. The car gets stuck on the edge of the cliff, half hanging off, as the baby starts screaming (same), Tess looks around in shock (same), and Claire discovers her leg is stuck and she can't move.

What happens next is maybe the most traumatic five minutes of TV that anyone in the '00s had to sit through: Claire manages to convince Tess to get out of the car, grab Charlotte, and make sure she's out of harm's way. As Claire watches her sister rescue baby Charlotte, Tess then attempts to get a rope and tie the back of the car to the nearest sturdy tree but the rope is TOO DAMN SHORT.

You can guess what happens next considering you clicked on an article about death: Claire tells Tess she loves her, and to take care of Charlotte, and pushes Tess out of the way as the car goes rolling off the cliff and Claire plummets to her untimely demise.

It was tragic. It was heartbreaking. It was traumatic. Channel Nine should be paying my therapy bills.

20 years on, fans aren't over Claire's death

It was honestly so gut-wrenchingly sad that even. after 20 years, fans of the show haven't moved on (clearly, because I'm still writing about it).

In a 2017 interview about the impactful death of Claire McLeod, Lisa Chappell said she got back to Sydney after a holiday and people had tracked down her phone number.

"I decided to go see my brother in Corfu [in Greece]. It was the first time I'd had time off in three years. When I got back to Sydney, I got some phone calls from mothers who had tracked down my number. They said, "Look, you need to speak to my child. They can't sleep. They just need to hear your voice," Lisa said in the interview with TV Week.

She also detailed how, in later years, the cast had been doing meet and greets with fans who were still getting upset.

"We've been doing these meet-and-greets [with fans]. I always get asked about that scene, always. Last year, I'd just start with a blanket apology: 'If anyone was severely traumatised, I'm open to giving hugs.' Hands would shoot up and I'd run around hugging everyone," she said.

Even on Lisa's Instagram account fans are still mourning Claire, 20 years on.

"The only time a tv show made me cry.. when Claire died. I loved Claire and Alex, [the] show wasn’t the same afterwards," one person commented this year.

"Just watched Claire’s death two weeks ago. For the seventh time. But cried just as much as the first time. It’s so unfair you left the show!" another said.

RIP Claire. Forever in our hearts, and forever held in our traumatised brains.

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