Clint Buchanan was the first of the rugged cowboy clan to show up in Llanview. Joe Riley, suffering from a terminal illness, heard of a wonderful independent newspaper in Arizona. He contacted the editor of the paper (Clint) and convinced him to take over as editor at the Banner. Joe's devoted wife, and publisher/owner of the Banner, Victoria Lord, first met Clint when he brought a drunken Joe home after a night at the bars. Needless to say, they didn't hit it off. Following Joe's death, Viki mourned her losses and prepared for the birth of a son, Joey. Clint dated talk show host Pat Ashley, a courtship that was busted up when her sister Maggie locked Pat away and tried to take her place. Clint was fooled at first, but soon went to find Pat. Maggie and Pat struggled over a gun. Only Pat left the room alive. Traumatized by killing her own sister, Pat told Clint she had to put all the bad memories - including him, unfortunately - behind her. Clint then had a fling with town villainess Dorian Lord, but he wasn't interested in staying for breakfast, much less a relationship.

By this time Clint was warming up to his publisher, but she was dating Ted Clayton, who claimed to be her ward Tina's long-lost father. Clint could tell that Ted was up to no good, but Viki didn't want to listen. When Clint and Viki went to a conference in New York, they had dinners by candlelight and began to realize they were in love. Viki planned to tell Ted the truth, but he slipped her enough drugs to convince her to be his bride. Clint kidnapped her before the wedding. Just as he got through to Viki, Ted showed up and poisoned him. The police chief showed up in time with an antidote, and Ted was arrested not only for the drugging but also for running a counterfeit ring in Llanview. Viki was shocked by what she had gotten herself into and refused to start any new relationship, even with Clint. Clint responded by moving to a rival paper, The Chronicle, and taking Banner columnist Edwina Lewis with him. They soon began a passionate affair.

In 1982, Viki's good friend Jenny Wolek was being pressured over who caused her baby to be switched with Katrina Karr's baby. Viki wrote an editorial saying she knew for a fact that Jenny was innocent of all claims and charges against her. When a grand jury grilled Viki on her sources, she chose to go to jail rather than name them. Clint visited her each day, and they finally admitted they were in love. Upon her release, they were married at Llanfair.

In 1983, an exotic countess/photographer, Echo DiSavoy, introduced herself to Clint, who was haunted by how familiar she seemed. Her allure led him to fall into bed with her. What he didn't know was that she blamed him for the death of her mother, and she lured him to a bridge. Upon picking a fight with him, she jumped to her death. Dorian witnessed the scene and told everyone that he had pushed Echo. Viki tracked the very-much-alive Echo down and Echo confessed her scheme. After she left town, Viki and Clint patched up their marriage.

In 1985, Tina Clayton returned to town and revealed to Viki that she was in fact Victor Lord's illegitimate child through his affair with Viki's college roommate, Irene Manning. The news caused Viki to revert to her alternate personality, Niki Smith. Niki began going out to bars at night and struck up a romance with an old boyfriend, Harry O'Neill. Tina and Mitch Laurence hatched a plan to inherit the Lord estate by killing Clint and setting up Niki. The plan went awry when Mitch mistook Harry for Clint and shot him! Harry died in a devastated Niki's arms, but Viki reemerged moments later, unable to remember any details about the murder. Tina was arrested but was exonerated when Viki turned back into Niki on the witness stand and revealed what had happened. When Viki failed to re-emerge, Clint had Niki committed. Niki faked a return to Viki to get released. Meanwhile, Tina had the hots for Clint and crawled into his bed after he drank too much one night.. Tina learned of Niki's ruse and convinced her to divorce Clint. Clint found out the truth, but then Tina claimed that she was pregnant with his child and would have an abortion if he didn't marry her! Clint refused to marry her, and her scheme fizzled when Dorian told Clint that Tina was not with child. Desperate to get Viki back, Clint took Tina to the lodge and pretended he wanted to have sex with her. Just as he pushed Tina onto the bed, Niki walked in. Viki's disgust at the situation was enough to bring her back for good, and she and Clint were joyously reunited. Unfortunately, that joy was tempered when her therapist, Dr. Marcus Polk, was found dead and Clint was tried for the crime, but Viki exonerated him.

In 1986, shortly before they remarried, Viki surprised and delighted Clint with the news that she was pregnant. He marveled to his "Pa" Asa that he finally had his first biological child. Asa looked a bit green for a moment, for he knew the truth -- that Clint had a 20 year old son! Clint had been madly in love with a teenage girl named Maria. Asa, disgusted at his son being involved with a Mexican, browbeat and bribed Maria and her mother into fleeing Texas without a word. Clint had never known why Maria left, or that she had been pregnant with his child. That child grew up to be Cord Roberts; like Clint, he had never known their blood ties. When Viki found out the truth, she told Clint, who was outraged at his father and Maria, but thrilled to have a good, kind man like Cord for a son.

Around this time, Viki gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Jessica. Unfortunately, one of Mitch Laurence's minions, Allison Perkins kidnapped the child. The entire family was frantic. Maria Roberts found Allison, but before she had Allison return the baby, she had her dress like Niki Smith. Clint fell for the bait, and refused to believe Viki's pleas that she had never turned into Niki. Husband and wife were torn apart, just as she became closer to her late husband Joe's twin brother, Tom Dennison. Viki collapsed one day and woke up with selective amnesia, totally blacking out the last 8 years of her life. She thought Tom was Joe, and refused to leave his side. Clint managed to stall her divorce proceedings for 6 months. While spending time with Tom, he convinced her to see a doctor. She discovered she had a brain tumor. While being operated on, she went to "Heaven", where her beloved Joe told her to return to Earth and reunite with her true love, Clint. Afterwards, she remembered Clint, and her love for him.

Later in 1987, Maria Roberts planned to poison Viki so she could have Clint all to herself. The plan went awry when, during a struggle with Tina, Maria got the poison on herself and died. Tina was convicted of her murder. She ran into old foe Jamie Sanders, who swore revenge on her. Tina escaped prison with Cord's help, and the charges eventually were dropped. Jamie tracked her down and took her hostage with Viki. Clint saved them, but Jamie shot him in the head. Clint was rendered blind. Angry at his helplessness, he slowly learned to cope, and moving to his Arizona ranch with Viki further aided his recovery. One day he decided to compete in a grueling horse race, in spite of his lack of eyesight. The family begged him not to get involved, but he went anyway. Little did he know that Maria's vengeful brother George had drugged his horse, Oakie, into a violent reaction. Sure enough, the horse bucked Clint and he whammed his head on a rock.

When Clint woke up, he received two jolts: One, that he could see. Two, that he was in the year 1888! Buck Buchanan, the powerhouse of Buchanan City, looked just like his father. Miss Ginny, the schoolmarm, looked just like his beloved Viki. Clint learned from an Indian named Clear Eyes that he was brought back in time to reunite Ginny and her beau Randolph Lord. Otherwise, Viki would never be born. Clint thought at one point that Randolph was sterile and that he had no way back to the future. Ginny had loved Clint for many weeks, so Clint accepted her marriage proposal. Right before they said their vows, Viki burst through the door. She had been alerted by a visitor from the past and managed to travel back to 1888 through a cave. Clint and Viki reunited themselves, as well as Ginny and Randolph, and for a second task, helped the ever-feuding Buchanan and McGillis families mend fences. Clear Eyes allowed them to return to 1988, where they wondered if the whole thing had just been a dream.

In 1990, Viki was elected mayor of Llanview, and was then shot and suffered a stroke. Clint stood by her side through her entire recovery. In 1991, it was her turn to stand by his side. Viki believed he was sleeping with a pretty coworker, Sondra Hall. In truth he was trying to conceal from Viki that the bullet fragments in his head had shifted, and he only had a few months to live. Viki and their children Joey, Jessica and Kevin convinced Clint to have a risky operation to remove the fragments. He pulled through.

In 1992, Clint grieved for his son Cord's presumed death, all while helping Viki say goodbye to her own child, Megan. The stress and strain finally seemed to take a toll on their once rock-solid marriage. Viki was uninterested in him sexually and enchanted by family biographer Sloan Carpenter. By 1993, Clint and Viki had separate bedrooms. He refused to end the marriage, citing the kids, but when Dorian led him to a tryst between Viki and Sloan, an enraged Clint gave up. He sought solace in his Arizona ranch, only this time a plane crash caused serious injuries that he spent most of the year recovering from. When he returned to Llanview, he and Viki ended their 15-year love affair. Clint saw the deep love Viki had for Sloan, who subsequently died from Hodgkin's Disease.. In 1995, Clint helped Viki through her latest bout of split personalities and the revelation that not only had her father sexually abused her, but she had killed him. Their daughter Jessica began dating sweet young Cristian Vega. Clint shared some tender kisses with Cris' mother, Carlotta, although nothing came of the relationship.

In 1997 and 1998, Clint and Viki began inching their way towards a reconciliation. One night over dinner, Clint proposed to Viki. Flustered, she turned him down, then went on a short cruise. Clint was crushed by her answer. Lindsay Rappaport just happened to be nearby, and after a trip to Vegas, Clint married her. When Viki returned from her trip, she planned to tell Clint that she'd changed her mind...only to find out that he was already married. Due to Lindsay's insecurities over the Buchanan family and her obsession with Nora Buchanan, the marriage fell apart in a matter of months. The last straw was when Jessica got pregnant y Lindsay's son Will. Jessica and Cristian went on the run, and Clint found out that Lindsay had given them money because she wanted Jess out of Will's life. Clint threw her out moved to London to be with his son Cord.

Clint returned in May 1999 to attend his father's wedding and the birth of Jessica's first child. He brought along his girlfriend, Dallas, and wished Viki and her new beau Ben (later revealed to be Clint's half-brother) well. Jessica was involved in a hit and run and Clint was left to mourn his lost grandchild and sing The Yellow Rose of Texas to his comatose daughter. When she recovered, he returned to London. He visited again in 2003 in the aftermath of the revelation that his daughter by Viki was in fact Natalie Buchanan and that Jessica was Viki's daughter by Mitch Laurence. His next visit was in 2004, when he helped Viki through her grueling heart transplant.

Clint returned to Llanview after Jessica was diagnosed with Disassociate Identity Disorder. Dallas followed, but the two realized that their relationship was not meant to be and she returned to London alone. Clint proved to be an interesting voice of reason, as he could sympathize with both Nash and Antonio, each of whom was in love with one of Jessica's personalities. When Tess was only willing to talk to Niki Smith, it was Clint who was able to bring Viki back out when it seemed like Niki would take over. Together, Viki and Clint finally learned the devastating truth -- Jessica's alternate personality stemmed from numerous incidents as a child where she had been used in child pornography. But rather than turn to Viki for comfort, Clint had found a new romantic partner -- Dorian Lord.

Clint and Dorian's relationship came to an end in August 2007, when Dorian falsely believed that Clint was having an affair with Nora and slept with David Vickers. Clint walked in on Dorian and David and called it quits. Soon thereafter, Clint and Nora actually began dating. Dorian, as revenge for being dumped by Clint, orchestrated a hostile takeover of Buchanan Enterprises. Dorian announced the takeover at a BE shareholders meeting, and at the same time revealed that the man Clint believed was his half-brother, Jared Banks, was in fact an imposter and was dating Clint's daughter Natalie. Clint nearly strangled Dorian to death at the meeting. Afterwards, he hatched a plan to win BE back by threatening to take away her ward, Langston Wilde. Clint paid off Columbian officials to release Langston's uncle, Ray Montez, from a prison where he was serving time for murder. Clint's actions infuriated Nora, causing a riff between them. Clint tried to call off the deal at the last minute, but Ray ended up getting shot by his estranged wife Vanessa before he could get on the airplane with Langston. Nora convinced Dorian to give up controlling interest in BE by threatening to press charges against Dorian, who had hired a hit man to kill Ray but thwarted the attack before it happened. Clint was ecstatic, and he and Nora tried to mend fences.

Meanwhile, Clint and Viki's daughter Natalie went missing after arguing with Jared about helping Clint bring Ray to town. Jared got a note from Natalie, saying she had left him and left town, but in fact she was being held beneath Llanfair by Jessica's alter Tess, who was trying to get back at Natalie and Jared for their part in Nash's death. After Jared and Jessica both went missing, Viki and Clint realized something was wrong and started searching for them. After Natalie and Jared were discovered, they told Viki and Clint that Jessica had reverted to Tess and had begun experiencing labor pains. Clint and Viki tracked Jessica down at the cottage she shared with Nash and were overjoyed to discover that Jessica had given birth to a healthy baby girl -- unaware that Jessica's baby had actually died and been switched with Starr's baby by Bess, another of Jessica's alters. Clint broke the news to Jessica about what Tess had done to Natalie and Jared, and Jessica committed herself to St. Anne's to get psychiatric help. Clint and Natalie mended fences, and Clint even welcomed Jared back to BE. When Jared asked Clint's permission to propose to Natalie on Christmas Day 2008, Clint gave his blessing.

When David Vickers returned to town, claiming to have converted to Buddhism, Clint and the rest of the family went into crisis mode to keep David from learning that he was Asa's long-lost son, because according to Asa's will David would be entitled to all of the family's financial holdings. But when Dorian stumbled on the secret, Clint decided it was better to tell David the truth before Dorian could use the knowledge to her advantage. He hired Rex to track down David, but Dorian got to David first and the two got married. Dorian revealed the news of her marriage to the Buchanan family during the Go Red Ball, and David soon learned that he was Asa's missing heir. David at first was upset at Dorian for keeping the news from him, but later he embraced his newfound lineage and kicked the Buchanan's out of the mansion. When DNA tests were performed, however, it was revealed that David wasn't Asa's son but was in fact Bo's son, meaning David wasn't entitled to the Buchanan fortune.

When Bo and Nora's son Matthew was paralyzed in a car accident, Clint tried to find specialists who could help him regain the use of his legs, but he was unsuccessful. Bo and Nora got closer as they struggled to help Matthew through this difficult time, and Clint increasingly found himself off on the sidelines. Clint orchestrated a surprise party to welcome Matthew home from the hospital, but the effort backfired when Matthew said he didn't want to see anyone. When Clint spotted Nora and Bo in an embrace and demanded to know what was going on, Bo told Clint that he nearly kissed Nora while they were sitting in a car after dropping Matthew off at school. Clint was upset at Nora for not confiding in him, and Bo blamed Clint for bringing this on himself by deciding to date his ex-wife! That night, during Natalie's bachelorette party at UltraViolet, Clint stunned Nora by showing up and proposing marriage. Despite her misgivings about the timing of the proposal, Nora accepted Clint's proposal.

Clint and Viki were stunned when Natalie and Jared revealed to them that the baby Jessica was raising as her own was in fact stolen from the hospital by Jessica's alter, Bess, and actually belonged to Starr and Cole. After Jessica's alter Bess reemerged and ran off with the baby, the family followed her to West Virginia and Viki finally got Jessica to acknowledge that her own baby was dead. Clint and Viki later supported Jessica as she returned baby Hope, and grieved privately for the granddaughter they had lost.

While dining together at the Palace Hotel, Nora and Clint were shocked to learn that Viki and Charlie were engaged as well. When the couples realized that they had picked the same wedding date, Renee suggested a double wedding, and they hesitantly agreed. Clint surprised Nora by presenting her with an engagement ring while having breakfast with Matthew and Bo, and then by announcing that he had found a doctor who said he could help Matthew walk again. Clint was surprised when Bo seemed wary of the doctor's ability to cure Matthew. Clint again felt left out when he learned that Nora didn't mention that she and Bo had watched Matthew play piano at a recital. Viki questioned why Clint was rushing Nora into marriage, and Clint said Bo needed to understand that Nora was with him now. When Bo and Nora decided to not to let Matthew have his surgery, Matthew sued his parents. Nora asked Clint to postpone the wedding, but Clint pushed Nora to keep to the schedule, convincing her that a wedding was just what the family needed. On the night before the wedding, unbeknownst to Clint, Nora and Bo shared a kiss outside of Asa's lodge. Clint was nearly told the truth, first by Matthew and then by Bo, but both decided they couldn't hurt Clint. Clint worried to himself that Nora would back out at the last minute, but in the end she and Clint exchanged vows. Afterwards, however, Clint seemed to see Nora even less than he had before the wedding. Nora spent more and more time with Bo, either at the police station or fighting the lawsuit in court.

After Matthew won the lawsuit and found a doctor in Seattle who would perform the surgery, Clint loaned Nora and Bo the private jet so they could fly Matthew to London so he couldn't have the surgery. When Matthew went missing from the school, Clint flew to London to be with Nora, unaware that Nora and Bo had admitted their love to one another and were prepared to reunite. Clint was forced to leave as quickly as he had arrived after Mitch Laurence resurfaced in Napa Valley, California, and put Jessica and Natalie's lives in danger. Clint consoled Natalie after Jared died after being shot by Mitch, and was relieved when Nora and Bo came back for Jared's funeral. Kimberly Andrews, an ex-stripper from Las Vegas, arrived at the Buchanan mansion on the day of Jared's funeral and lied to Clint that Jared had agreed to hire her as Clint's new executive assistant just before he died. Clint first told Kim to resubmit her resume, but after she cried about having quit her job to take the new position, Clint reconsidered and told her she was hired. While Nora and Bo were off visiting Matthew in Seattle, Nigel's look-alike cousin Neville pretended to be Nigel and told Clint that his wife and brother were having an affair, and that both David Vickers and Kevin Buchanan knew about it. Kim, who had arranged for Neville to tell Clint about the affair, urged Clint to get even with Nora. Clint then arranged for Nora to walk in on him and Kimberly in bed together. Nora couldn't believe it when Clint told her that he had been having an affair with Kim, but as Clint started filling in the details, Nora realized that Clint was really talking about her and Bo. Clint told Nora he only staged the dalliance with Kim so she could feel the betrayal he felt. As Nora prepared to leave the mansion with Bo, Clint drew a rifle on them and berated them for carrying on behind his back. After Nora left, Clint told Bo he was no longer his brother. Clint then went to Kim's apartment and they shared a bottle of liquor. Clint told Kim he knew all about her past in Las Vegas and Kim admitted that Jared never hired her, that she only pretended so she could get to meet him. Clint then stunned Kim by not firing her, saying she could still prove useful to him.

Dorian arrived at Clint's with a photo of Nora and Bo in a lip-lock at the Buchanan lodge and Clint urged Dorian to "fire his ass." Clint secretly provided journalists with details of the affair and they put Dorian on the spot during the mayor's ball, giving her an opening to fire Bo. Clint was pleased with himself, and when the clock struck midnight to ring in 2010, he pulled in Kim for a kiss. When Kim was forced to move out of her apartment with Stacy, Clint offered her a room at the mansion with him and she excitedly agreed. Clint served Nora with divorce papers and asked for $42 million in damages. When Nora's attorney threatened to sell the mansion, which was in Nora's name, Clint agreed to drop the request for damages in exchange for Nora signing over ownership of the mansion to him. When David threatened to tell his Uncle Clint that Kim arranged for Neville to tell Clint the truth about Nora and Bo, Kim surprised David by coming clean with Clint. Clint thanked Kim for looking out for him when no one else would.

After Kim's best friend Stacy Morasco died in a tragic accident shortly after giving birth to a baby girl, Kim told Clint that Stacy wanted her to raise her baby if anything happened to her. Kim asked Clint to marry him to help her win custody over the baby's father and aunt, who were battling each other for custody. Clint agreed, but said Kim would need to sign a prenuptial agreement written to ensure Kim would lose all monetary claims to the Buchanan fortune if she cheated on Clint during their marriage. Kim reluctantly signed the papers and, during a brief ceremony in the Buchanan mansion's living room, exchanged "I dos" with Clint before a justice of the peace. When Clint told Natalie about the marriage, she lashed out on him but was put in her place by Clint and Viki, who told Clint she approved of the marriage so long as Clint had both eyes open. Just weeks after their marriage, however, Clint returned home to find Kim with her bags packed. When Clint demanded an explanation, Kim revealed how she and Stacy had conspired to get Stacy pregnant and keep the truth about Sierra's parentage from the true father, Oliver Fish. When Clint signaled he was willing to forgive Kim's duplicity, Kim then claimed she had cheated on him after their wedding. Clint maintained a stiff upper lip, pretending not to have developed feelings for Kim, even as she told him she did care for him and would never forget him.

After Bo was shot, Clint visited at the hospital and told his brother that he couldn't imagine life without him. He told Nora that she and Bo belonged together. But when Bo and Nora told Clint soon after that they were getting remarried, Clint's bitterness returned and he admitted that Kim had left him. Bo and Nora invited Clint to the wedding, but he told them he wasn't sure he was up for it. Clint appeared to be a no-show at the wedding, but before Nora and Clint could exchange their vows, Clint barged into the church carrying a loaded shotgun. Everyone assumed he was gunning for Bo and Nora, but it turned out his wrath was aimed at David, who was presiding over the ceremony. Clint said he had found out from Nigel that David had forced Kim to leave. Viki calmed Clint down and the wedding resumed. Clint later told Viki that he had not been able to find Kim, despite his best efforts.

Clint got mixed up with Dorian again when he agreed to pretend to be dating her so she could get David Vickers off her back. In exchange for Clint's help, Dorian agreed to make sure Clint would get the winning bid for naming rights for the new sports stadium. But Clint put an end to his arrangement with Dorian when David agreed to give him a thumb drive containing all of the information he had dug up on Kim. David promised Clint that he would be able to locate Kim using the information contained on the thumb drive. But when Clint still couldn't track down Kim, he put a plan in motion to get even with David. Right before David was about to marry Dorian, he was tackled by a group of men hired by Clint and carried off to a prison in Morocco. Clint arrived to tell David he wouldn't be getting out of jail for 20 years.

With David safely locked away, Clint put another phase of his revenge plan in motion by convincing Matthew to start interning at Buchanan Enterprises -- an action he knew Bo would not approve of. Clint further irritated his younger brother by beginning to date Bo's new executive assistant, Inez Salinger.

After Matthew caught Rex stealing files from Clint's office, Clint admitted to Rex that he had notified Moroccan authorities as to David's whereabouts so David would be arrested on prior charges. When Rex threatened to tell everything to Bo, Clint threatened to have Rex locked up for espionage. Clint demonstrated his power by having Gigi's university grant revoked. After Rex agreed to stay quiet, Clint arranged for Gigi to get offered a teaching assistant job at the university so she could continue her studies. In the meantime, Clint had Gigi's grant given to Inez's son James, who was unable to pay for school after his brother Robert got fired as a professor for having an inappropriate relationship with student Langston Wilde. Eager to win Inez's affections, Clint offered to put in a good word for Robert with the university dean so he could get his teaching job back. Clint was furious when Jessica later told him that Robert Ford could be the father of her baby, resulting from a one-night stand when she thought she was a teenager. Clint had Ford beat up by his hired goons, but Clint told Ford that he could keep his job for the time being because he wanted to spare Inez learning what her son had done.

Clint got a bitter reminder of a past indiscretion when former flame Echo DiSavoy showed up in Llanview after being gone for more than two decades. Clint and Viki both hired investigators to find out what Echo had been doing since she was run out of town for having an affair with Clint while he was married to Viki and framing him for murder. Rex Balsom learned Echo had returned to town nearly a year after she originally left and questioned Clint, but Clint claimed to have no idea why she would have returned. Echo rattled Clint when she brought out a heart-shaped necklace that he had given her after returning from a business trip to New Mexico while they were having their affair. Clint claimed not to remember giving it to her, but in fact he hired someone to return to New Mexico and retrieve the other half of the necklace, which Rex had left on the gravesite of the woman he believed to be his mother. Dorian saw Clint with the other half of the necklace, and he claimed he had purchased it for someone.

During a private confrontation, Echo admitted to Clint that she was Rex's mother and that he was the father. Echo said she learned she was pregnant after leaving Llanview and moving to New Mexico with her brother Giles. She returned to Llanview with Rex after giving birth but realized the baby would be resented if she forced him on Clint and Viki, who had since reunited. So she left the baby at the hospital with half of the heart necklace, keeping the other half to remind her of her child. Clint stunned Echo by revealing that he had known the truth since early 2009, when he learned his bone marrow was a perfect genetic match for Shane, who had been diagnosed with leukemia. Clint said he was relieved when Stacy stepped forward with the matching bone marrow so he didn't have to come forward himself. Clint even concocted an elaborate ruse to throw Rex off the trail and make him think his parents were Lili and Rick, who were actually fictional characters in a book written by Asa's grandmother Blaize Pardee.

Clint threatened to have Rex sent to jail for corporate espionage for breaking into BE if Echo revealed Clint was Rex's father. So when Echo finally admitted the truth to Rex, she claimed that Charlie was Rex's father. After Bo realized that Clint could be Rex's father, Viki demanded a DNA test. Dorian told Clint she knew he had the other half of the necklace that Echo had given to Rex as a baby, but Clint told her she was mistaken. When Viki confronted Clint, Clint gave her the necklace and said his private investigator had uncovered proof that Echo had made up the tale and hired people in Santa Fe to back up her story. Clint had one of his BE associates create a hospital identification card and enter the lab to change the results of Rex's paternity test, as well as the test Jessica had undergone to find out of Brody or Ford was the father of her baby. Before Clint could learn if the results had been changed, he was summoned to Rex's loft to learn the results of his paternity test. The tests showed Charlie as Rex's father, and Clint breathed a sigh of relief. His associate also assured Clint that he had changed the paternity tests for his daughter's baby to name Brody Lovett as the father.

Clint next turned his sights on getting revenge on Bo and Nora for betraying him. He shocked Inez on Thanksgiving Day by telling her he wanted her to sleep with Bo. Clint threatened to make life miserable for her and her sons if she didn't comply. Inez made Clint promise to make her ex-husband, Eddie Ford, disappear from town if she slept with Bo. But in fact, Clint enlisted Eddie's help in his scheme. Promising Eddie a large cash reward, Clint had Eddie kidnap Nora and send text messages from her phone to Bo, telling Bo that he should sleep with Inez to even the score over her affair years ago with Sam Rappaport. Clint then arranged for Matthew to walk in on Bo and Inez together so he could turn Matthew against his parents. Clint was thrilled to learn that his plan had worked and that Nora had kicked Bo out of the house after she learned of his indiscretion. Inez later came clean to Bo and Nora, however, and Clint admitted everything to Bo during a tense confrontation in the stables. Bo was convinced that he had arranged for Eddie to be murdered and had planted evidence to make Inez and Nate look guilty, but a confident Clint told Bo he couldn't prove anything. Clint then arranged for Robert Ford to lose his job and for James to lose his scholarship in retaliation for Inez's betrayal. After Ford threatened to tell the cops that Clint had had him beaten up, Clint retaliated by having the $50,000 that had gone missing from Eddie's hotel room the night he was murdered planted in Ford's university office.

When Clint's adopted son Joey showed up town and announced he planned to marry Aubrey Wentworth, a woman he had met just weeks earlier, Clint pegged Aubrey as a gold digger. After Joey refused to have Aubrey sign a prenuptial agreement, Clint disinherited Joey. But Aubrey turned the tables on Clint after she learned that Clint had arranged for the DNA tests for Rex and Jessica to be switched. Aubrey threatened to expose Clint if he didn't reinstate Joey's inheritance and welcome her into the family, and Clint appeared to back down. But Clint had Aubrey's hotel room bugged and got the evidence he needed to expose Aubrey as a lying con artist. Before he could present that evidence to Joey, however, Clint's assistant Vimal revealed to everyone during Jessica and Natalie's double wedding that he had switched the DNA tests to ensure Rex was named as Charlie's son and that Jessica's baby was Brody's. The family lashed out at Clint for his actions, and Bo took him into custody. Clint gave the thumb drive from Aubrey's room to Kelly, but Cutter managed to switch out the drive with another one before Joey viewed it.

Newly married to Joey, Aubrey agreed to get the charges against Clint dropped in exchange for Clint not showing Joey the thumb drive. Clint was relieved when Vimal took the rap for switching the DNA tests and was sent to Statesville. Aubrey later forced Clint to welcome Vimal's wife Rama into the home after Joey destroyed the thumb drive. Clint's legal problems were far from over, however, when Rex uncovered video footage of Clint leaving Eddie's hotel room on the night of his murder with a gun. Clint was arrested but before his arraignment he stunned Bo and Nora by revealing that Matthew killed Eddie. Matthew had killed Eddie after running into him and realizing that he had been with Nora, who was nowhere to be found. He then called Clint, who cleaned up all the evidence.

In April 2011, Echo told Clint that she and Charlie were having an affair and that he was leaving Viki for her. Echo asked Clint not to tell Charlie that she knew all along that Charlie wasn't Rex's father, and Clint agreed after realizing that Viki and Charlie were indeed over. But Clint secretly taped Echo's confession as an insurance policy. When Echo told Clint that Shane had tried to kill himself because he was being bullied, Clint went to Rex and offered to help him get back at the bullies. But Rex told Clint he wanted nothing to do with him. Bo berated Clint for setting the stage for Matthew killing Eddie by pursuing the vendetta against Bo and Nora. Bo told Clint that he would never forgive him for what he had done and stormed off. Clint then suffered a heart attack and fell to the floor. Dorian showed up and forced Clint to admit that Echo knew all along about Rex's parentage before she would call an ambulance. Clint even gave Dorian Echo's taped confession. Clint was rushed to the hospital, where doctors told him that the delay in getting treatment had caused irreparable damage to his heart. Clint's only hope was a transplant, but because of his rare blood type a transplant was unlikely. Clint told Bo that he was dying but that he didn't want the rest of the family to know. Viki overheard the diagnosis and Clint broke down as she urged him to fight.

After learning that television reporter Bianca Morales was going to report that Matthew had killed Eddie Ford, Clint confessed to the murder on live television and also confessed to all of his other crimes. Clint agreed to give Cutter Wentworth $1 million and the deed to the Buchanan mansion so Cutter would have Tess committed to St. Ann's. Rex lashed out at Clint for failing to acknowledge him as his son on television, and Clint suffered another heart attack. Clint was put to the top of the heart donor list, but the doctors warned him that he may die before a heart became available. Clint was stunned when an enraged Nora told Clint that she would never allow Matthew's heart to be transplanted into him. Clint then learned that Matthew had suffered a serious brain injury and was not expected to recover. Clint told Nora he would never accept Matthew's heart, but Bo was torn over what to do. Matthew showed signs of recovery, however, so Clint prepared to meet his maker. Viki realized that Clint had confessed to killing Eddie to cover for Matthew.

Clint's prayers were answered when the doctors informed him that another heart had become available. But the family was stunned to learn that the donor was Gigi Morasco, who had become brain dead after inhaling carbon monoxide. Rex refused to allow Gigi's heart to be transplanted into Clint and presented a signed document that gave him power over her medical decisions. But Rex ultimately reconsidered, on the condition that Clint hand over all of his assets, including the company and the mansion. Clint invoked a clause in his contract with Cutter that allowed him to take back control over the house, and he transferred ownership to Rex. Gigi's heart was transplanted into Clint, and he made a full recovery.

In August 2011, Clint was released from the hospital and appeared in court to answer the criminal charges against him. Nora withdrew the murder charge, without revealing that the real killer was her own son, and Clint pleaded guilty to the long list of charges stemming from the DNA tampering and David's imprisonment. The judge ordered Clint held without bail as he awaited sentencing. Clint was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but after Clint's family and physician argued that his health was not good, the judge agreed to let Clint stay confined to his house. Clint told the judge he didn't have a house anymore because his son had stolen it from him. To prevent Clint from going to Statesville, Viki offered up her home and Clint moved in to Llanfair.

Clint was shocked when his ex-wife, Kimberly Andrews, showed up at Llanfair. Kim evaded Clint's questions about why she had left town in the first place. Kim told Clint that she was caring for a sick friend in a hospital in Kentucky and wanted his investment advice so she could make some money to pay for her friend's hospital bills. Clint offered to have Kim's friend transferred to Llanview Hospital to ensure she got the best care, but Kim explained that her friend couldn't be moved. Clint hired Rex to track down Kimberly's friend and Rex reported back that Kim's friend had been discharged from the hospital, so Clint knew that Kim's story was not true. Clint later got a letter from Kim, indicating that she had met someone else and was no longer interested in him.

Cutter then tried to blackmail Clint with a document in which Rex appeared to sign over all of his assets. Clint phoned Rex, who had just learned from Roxy that the document was a fake, and told Cutter to take his phony document and shove it. Rex told Clint he would hand over everything to Clint voluntarily, because he realized that the money did nothing to make his life better. Clint offered to let Rex and Shane stay in the mansion for as long as they wanted, saying he wanted the mansion to stay in the family.

In November, Clint received a one-time reprieve from his house detention so he could walk Natalie down the aisle in her wedding to Brody. But the wedding turned into another Buchanan fiasco when Tina showed up with baby Liam's real paternity test, which proved that John was the father of Natalie's child, not Brody. Natalie was devastated when Brody admitted that he had known all along and broke things off with him. Cord impulsively proposed to Tina and she agreed to get married, and Clint surprisingly supported his son's fourth attempt to achieve wedded bliss with Tina. Clint and Viki grew closer, meanwhile, and Clint began hinting that he wanted to pursue a relationship with Viki again. He pulled Viki into a passionate kiss then told Viki that nothing was standing in his way, explaining that he had received Kim's letter breaking it off with him. Viki felt like Clint had chosen her only after Kim was off the market and abruptly left town.

While she was gone, Kim returned to Llanview, intent on giving Clint a piece of her mind since she had received a letter from him saying he wanted nothing to do with her. But Clint explained that he had never sent Kim that letter and had received his own letter from Kim in which she claimed to have met another man. They both realized that Cutter had sent the letters to keep Clint from trying to track Kim down. Kim wanted to be with Clint, but Clint told her that he also had developed feelings for his ex-wife Viki. Kim pulled Clint into a kiss, hoping to sway his decision, not realizing that Viki had just returned home and saw the kiss from the doorway. Forced to choose, Clint chose Viki and Kim told her cowboy goodbye. An angry Viki told Clint that she had seen him kissing Kim, but Clint explained that it was a goodbye kiss and that he had told Kim that there was only one woman for him - Viki. Clint and Viki shared a tender embrace.

Clint and Viki were shocked when Rex and Shane arrived from Paris, Texas, and revealed that Gigi was actually alive, explaining that Gigi's sister Stacy was the one who had died and donated her heart to Clint. Rex proposed to Gigi at Llanfair, and they were married on New Year's Eve 2011. As a new year dawned, a massive power failure occurred and Llanview soon was overrun with inmates who had escaped from Statesville Prison. Clint encountered Mitch holding a gun on Natalie at Llanfair and was quickly knocked out by Mitch. Natalie was gone when Clint awoke, and soon Mitch called Viki to demand that she hand over Jessica in exchange for Natalie. Over Clint and Viki's objections, Jessica agreed to go with John to the church where Mitch was holding Natalie. Clint and Viki waited at Llanfair and soon were cornered by Allison Perkins, who had escaped as well. Armed with a gun, Allison informed Viki and Clint that she no longer took orders from anyone and was taking advice from Oprah to empower herself. Allison claimed that she'd arranged the prison escape and complained that everyone else got credit for her work.

Allison appeared ready to kill Viki and Clint but instead fired into a vase. Allison then began rambling on about the time she kidnapped Natalie at birth and replaced her with Jessica, and how she felt obligated to please Mitch and tell him what he wanted to hear even if it wasn't exactly true. As Viki and Clint struggled to understand what Allison was trying to say, Allison suddenly announced that Natalie and Jessica were both Clint's biological daughters. Allison said she felt forced to tell Mitch that he was father to one of Viki's unborn babies because it's what he wanted to hear and he would have killed her if he learned the truth. Allison said she faked the DNA test to show Mitch as Jessica's father. Allison said she tried to tell Jessica the truth several years earlier but Jessica refused to listen to her. Frustrated that Viki and Clint were skeptical about her story, Allison impulsively shot Viki. As Clint tended to Viki, Allison began chanting her name around the room and declared, "My aim is true!" before escaping. Clint then collapsed from heart failure.

Clint took an out-of-body trip to a location somewhere between Heaven and Hell, where he met Stacy Morasco and learned that he was destined to spend eternity in Hell for all the bad things he had done. Clint knew he belonged with Viki and raced through a door that led him to a brighter location where Viki was being counseled by her deceased daughter, Megan. Megan sent them both back to Earth, where they awoke to find Natalie and John trying to revive them. While recovering in the hospital, Clint paid Vimal to run a DNA test to determine if Jessica was his biological daughter. Vimal presented Clint and Viki with the results at Llanfair, and Clint told Viki to read them first. She showed the results to Clint as Jessica and Natalie entered the room. Clint explained what Allison had told them and told Jessica that that he was her biological father after all. Jessica couldn't believe her good fortune. Alone in the living room, Clint told Viki that he had wasted too much time and got down on one knee to propose to Viki.

Clint hoped to marry Viki after his house detention was lifted. However, Viki was focused on saving the Banner and refused to let Clint solve her financial problems with an influx of his personal funds. As they worked to find a solution for the paper, Natalie and Viki learned that Clint had filed a restraining order which prevented John from having any contact with Natalie's son. Clint had done so without Natalie's consent. Although Clint believed he had acted in his daughter's best interest, Viki and Natalie disagreed.

Clint's relationship with Natalie was repaired but his connection to Viki continued to wane. Clint lied to Viki regarding an investment she had made and continued to deceive her whenever Viki asked him for the truth. The investment bankrupted Viki but Clint tried to shield her from the loss using his money. When Viki learned the truth, she realized she could not trust her fiancé and she ended their engagement. Clint begged for another chance and turned to alcohol after Viki refused to take him back. He also took his pills, unaware that Jeffrey King had tampered with them. Clint displayed his intoxication publically twice, once which led to his arrest after he assaulted a bouncer and a second time which led to sedation and hospitalization after he interrupted the "Man of the Year" gala. While Clint was in the hospital, Allison Perkins stood over his bed with a syringe.