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Waverley Wilson

Waverley Harrison
Waverley Harrison 2001.jpg
Shortland Street character
Portrayed by Claire Chitham
Duration 1994–95, 1998–2005, 2017
First appearance 5 July 1994
Introduced by Tony Holden (1994)
Simon Bennett (1998)
Maxine Fleming (2017)
Book appearances Nick's Story - Shortland Street Books (1996)
Classification Present; returning
Profile
Occupation Receptionist at Shortland Street Hospital (1994–95, 1998–2005)

Waverley Harrison (née Wilson, previously Wallasee) was a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. She was portrayed by Claire Chitham and was introduced as a love interest for Nick Harrison who she eventually married 8 years after her arrival to the show. The character is set to return along with Husband Nick for the show's 25th anniversary episode set to air on the 25th of May, 2017.

Waverley arrived as a love interest for Nick Harrison (Karl Burnett) and as part of the McKenna family unit. Sixteen-year-old Claire Chitham auditioned for the role and ended up winning it. After several months on the show, producers decided the character of Waverley had run her desired course and she was written off. Chitham believed her time on the soap was over and finished school, started a degree and began acting in other jobs. However, in 1998 Chitham was contacted by the show with a pitch that would see Waverley return in a 3-month stint. Chitham was hugely surprised as nothing of that calibre had happened before in the show and she happily accepted. She stated, "It’s good to be back. When you know how the system of this place operates it’s very easy to slip back in, so it feels like I never was away."

In 2004 the character of Waverley was axed from the show, alongside husband, Nick. The Harrison family made their last appearance on 17 March 2005. Chitham found it unusual leaving the soap having worked on it for 8 years, "I understood at that point I was living in a very extreme world. After eight years in the job I was earning great money, with good opportunities and time to spare. Yet I knew I was perfectly capable of coping with reality, and having been there since I was 18, I didn’t know what my reality was." Following her exit, Chitham was asked to reprise her role but at the time believed she was, "on my way to other things". For the soap's 25th anniversary, Chitham and Burnett were asked to reprise their roles for a feature length episode. Chitham described returning as, "weird" and compared it to being asked, "to have sex with an ex". Chitham will make her reappearance on 25 May 2017.

Waverley arrived to stay with her aunt Alex McKenna (Liddy Holloway) and quickly landed a job at the reception of the clinic. She developed a crush on Stuart Neilson (Martin Henderson) but realised she was too inexperienced sexually and so lost her virginity to Nick (Karl Burnett). But it was not long before Waverley fell for Nick and they became a steady couple. In 1995 Waverley discovered that Nick had married her cousin Rachel (Angela Bloomfield) in a student protest and fled the country in tears. Waverely returned more than two years later and asked Nick to return to her. However, by the time Nick realised Waverley was the girl for him, her husband Roger (Brett Coutts) arrived and a frustrated Waverley fled town again. She returned several months later and reconciled with Nick and the two got engaged. In 1999 Waverley discovered that her marriage to Roger was invalid as it was bigamous, but nonetheless, slept with him when he returned. Nick forgave her but when she cut his hair off in his sleep, the relationship ended. Waverley rebounded with his professional rival, Josh Sinclair (Philip Patston) but the relationship was short lived, Waverley dumping Josh after Nick discovered Josh was a part-owner of Waverley's competition, Coffeeteria and that Josh was trying to stoop to dishonest measures to take Waverley over.


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Wikipedia

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