Tragic Details About Hallmark Star Clare Bowen
Petite, with a swirl of blonde, curly hair and an Instagram filled with singing, kissing husbands, very large dogs, and the occasional pair of fairy wings, it's easy to assume actor and singer Clare Bowen lives a charmed life. And with a career that was once helped along with advice from Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett and has included a major part in a hit TV show ("Nashville"), as well as Hallmark movies "#Xmas" and "Sand Dollar Cove," there is definitely some charm happening.
The native Australian has also found the love of her life, Bowen's husband, Brandon Robert Young, with the couple exchanging vows in October 2017. He's also a musician, and the two have collaborated several times, writing songs and performing together on stage. Not coincidentally, at the end of "Nashville," Bowen's character, Scarlett, shares that her new love is a guitar-playing band member — played, appropriately, by Young.
But along with the successes and joys Bowen has experienced in her life, there have also been some major setbacks. Cancer has invaded her happiness not once, but twice, and despite her demonstrable talent, the Hallmark star once felt so discouraged about her music career that she gave up singing.
Bowen was diagnosed with cancer at age four
"Me. Hospital gardens. Less hair," Clare Bowen wrote on Instagram to accompany the above photo of her younger self, dressed in a blue coat and a matching hat. At the age of just four, she was diagnosed with kidney cancer, more specifically end-stage nephroblastoma. "I'd overheard the doctors telling my family that the only hope of saving me was an experimental treatment that might kill me anyway," she revealed on Facebook. "But without it, I had maybe two weeks left." After battling the disease for several years, she beat the odds and walked away a cancer survivor, but not without distinct memories and an entirely different view of life from her classmates.
The Hallmark star spent a great deal of her time in the hospital, being treated in a children's cancer ward, noting, "We were mostly bald, all tubed, taped, bandaged, and stitched back together." When she was working on her 2019 self-titled album, Bowen knew there was one song in particular that had to be written; about her friends in the hospital who weren't as lucky as her, who didn't survive the experimental chemotherapy. "There were so many of us that didn't make it," she told The Boot. "Somebody died literally every day." Together with her husband, Brandon Robert Young, and a friend, they penned "Warrior" to honor all of the kids she grew up with.
She gave up singing at one point
If, like us, you still get chills remembering Scarlett singing "If I Didn't Know Better" in Season 1 of "Nashville," then you'll understand why the idea of Clare Bowen giving up is a special kind of tragedy. That's exactly what happened, though, when she was working multiple jobs in Australia, trying to make it in the world of entertainment. Though Bowen was classically trained as a singer, her unique sound caused people to question her ability, and eventually, it took its toll.
"I definitely came across some discouragement early on that made me stop," the TV star admitted to Entertainment Focus. It was her brother, Timothy James Bowen, who's also a singer, who pulled his big sister out of her funk. On one particularly low-feeling night, he asked Clare why she didn't sing anymore, then told her, without a shadow of a doubt, "You have to sing, you were meant to sing."
The duo created a list of things she wanted to accomplish, including a music career. The Hallmark star has been working on her list ever since, starting with getting the "Nashville" gig only a short time after that fateful night. In a tribute to her brother on Instagram, Clare gave Timothy all the credit, asserting, "He's the guy who made me keep singing over ten years ago now, when I nearly gave up."
Her beloved brother was terminally diagnosed
After surviving childhood cancer, it was a considerable blow for Clare Bowen when she found out the same brother who helped lift her up at her lowest moment had also been diagnosed with the deadly disease. In 2015, Timothy James Bowen was given two weeks to live due to Stage 4 lymphoma. The actor flew from the US, where she was already a part of the cast of "Nashville," to be with him through Timothy's first round of chemotherapy.
Clare also put her wedding to Brandon Robert Young on hold. "We got engaged and then my brother got sick, so we dropped everything," she explained to ET. "Everything stopped and we went to Australia to help him." While Clare was taking care of Timothy, her then-fiancé wrote a song to honor his future brother-in-law, and to support the love of his life. The music video for "Love Steps In" shows family photos of the siblings and documents his battle with cancer.
When the song was released as a single, it was announced that the sale proceeds would go toward St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Timothy, just like his sister, beat the two-week death sentence he was initially given and has been in remission since 2016. Bowen still performs the song "Love Steps In," but does so with a lighter heart. "Now, I get to sing it smiling," she proudly informed The Daily Telegraph Australia's Stellar. "It's a joy that I have to share."