Steven Moffat Responds To 'Time Traveler's Wife' Criticisms That The Show Promotes Grooming

Ahead of the premiere this weekend, there has been some criticism that The Time Traveler’s Wife is promoting grooming through its’ storyline.

There are certain points throughout the show where Henry, played by Theo James, meets a young version of his present-day wife, Clare, played by Rose Leslie.

Some critics have taken issue that while meeting Clare as a child, it’s raised red flags that he was grooming her to be his wife.

Following the accusations, showrunner Steven Moffat responded.

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“That’s not what the story is in the book or the film or the TV show. He’s married to her,” he told TVLine. “He meets her as an adult, he falls in love with her, he gets married to her and then he’s flung back in time, through no fault of his own, and is confronted with the childhood version of the woman he already loves.”

Steven went on, “Even more so in the TV show version, he absolutely makes it clear that he’s just a friend.”

He also says that Henry has very strict rules about how he interacts with Clare when he travels back in time.

“If one of them changes the other, Clare changes Henry,” he shared. “Clare is exactly the same person as a little girl as she is when you see her in her seventies. Henry flows around Clare like a river around a rock. He makes himself the man she wants him to be because he loves her.”

The Time Traveler’s Wife debuts on HBO on Sunday, May 15 at 9 p.m.

If you missed it, check out what the movie’s star Rachel McAdams said about the show.