You fall away from your past, but it's following you. - The Fray's Fall Away

Claire Littleton was born October 27, 1982 in Australia. Her mother, Carole Littleton, was a single mother who was left to raise Claire after she and Christian Sheperd (who was living in America with his family - including his son, Jack) had an affair. When she was young, Christian often visited Claire. He would sing "Catch a Falling Star" to her. However, his visits stopped (he claimed he stopped because Claire's aunt Lindsey hated him and her mother was unable to cope with him having another family). Claire was led to believe her father had died when she was two год old.

Claire rebelled as a teenager, working at a tattoo parlor. She and her mother got into a car accident when a truck forced them off the road. Just before the accident, she and her mother were fighting and Claire claimed she wished her mother was dead. Both Carole and Claire were taken to the hospital where Claire and Lindsey were told that Carole may be in a permanent coma.
While visiting her mother in the hospital one day, she found Christian there, although she had no idea who he was. It turned out that he was paying Carole's medical expenses, as Lindsey couldn't afford them. After learning that Christian was her father, he convinced her to go to coffee with him where he tried to explain why he hadn't been in her life. However, Claire was still hurt and when Christian tried to convince Claire to turn off her mother's life support, she stormed away from him, without bothering to learn his name.

A few years later, Claire met Thomas while working at Fish & Fry for five dollars an hour. Thomas and Claire were both shocked to learn that Claire was pregnant and, although Claire was very scared, Thomas convinced her to keep the baby, saying he wanted to try to be parents.
Later on, Claire's friend Rachel convinced her to see a psychic, Richard Malkin because it was "fun". Malkin knew that Claire was pregnant without Claire having told him, which seemed to surprise both her and Rachel. Things were far from "fun", however, when Malkin "saw something" and refused to finish Claire's reading, sending her and Rachel away.

As Claire's pregnancy continued, Thomas admitted that he wasn't ready to be a father, claiming that Claire got pregnant on purpose. After fighting, Thomas stormed out of their apartment, leaving Claire alone to raise their baby.
Claire ended up going back to Malkin's, who knew that Thomas had left her. Malkin told her that she had to raise her baby herself and that her "goodness" had to be an influence on the child. Upset, Claire told him that if Thomas didn't come back she was going to give the baby up for adoption and she just wanted to know "what would give the baby the happiest life". Malkin continued to call Claire, begging her to raise the baby herself, but she ignored his pleas.

Claire still continued to visit Carole in the hospital, and finally admitted that she was pregnant to her mother. She broke down as she appologized for being such a difficult child, knowing now that she too was in the position of being a single mother.

Some time later, Claire met with who she had hoped would be her baby's adopitive parents, Arlene and Joseph Stewart. She asked them to sing "Catch a Falling Star" to the baby, like her father had sung to her. As she tried to sign the adoption papers, her pen stopped working. Even after getting two new pens, she was still unable to sign her name. Finally convinced that she needed to raise the baby, she returned to see Richard Malkin again.
Malkin told her that he had found a couple in Los Angeles who here "good people" and could raise the baby. He handed her a ticket to America on Oceanic Flight 815.