CHARACTER
The Bodyguardby Katherine Center

Hank Stapleton

Hank Stapleton

Quick Facts

  • Role: Older brother of Jack Stapleton; manager of the family’s Texas cattle ranch; initial antagonist turned key ally
  • First appearance: Chapter 8
  • Key relationships: Jack Stapleton; Connie Stapleton (mother); Drew Stapleton (younger brother); Hannah Brooks (Jack’s girlfriend/bodyguard)

Who They Are

At his core, Hank Stapleton is a dutiful rancher who stayed when others left—a man defined by responsibility, grief, and the instinct to protect what’s left of his family. He begins as a barrier to Jack’s return, a living embodiment of the novel’s exploration of Grief, Family, and Healing. Hank’s anger is not petty jealousy of celebrity; it’s grief turned outward, a defense mechanism to keep his parents safe and the memory of his brother intact. The tension between his rugged, working-class identity and Jack’s fame frames Hank as the guardian of “home,” a role that makes both his hostility and his eventual forgiveness deeply meaningful.

Personality & Traits

Hank reads as flinty and immovable at first glance, but his hardness is a symptom of unresolved loss. He polices boundaries—who gets to come home, who gets to speak about Drew, who gets to comfort their mother—not because he craves control, but because control is what grief left him. When truth punctures his certainty, Hank reveals a capacity for tenderness and change that reorients the entire family.

  • Antagonistic but principled: He tells Jack to leave the ranch and tries to force him out, not to punish him for fame, but because he believes Jack’s presence harms their mother and desecrates Drew’s memory.
  • Protective to a fault: Hank sees himself as his parents’ shield—especially his mother’s—and treats outsiders as threats until they prove they’re here to help, not to take.
  • Grief-stricken and accusatory: For two years, he channels grief into blame, convinced Jack caused Drew’s death; his fixation keeps the family frozen in place.
  • Grounded and work-worn: In “brown ropers and a plaid shirt and a blue gimme cap,” he looks like the brother who stayed behind—practical, unglamorous, and tied to the land (first seen in Chapter 8).
  • Capable of swift forgiveness: Once he learns the truth about Drew’s accident, his rage dissolves. The embrace that follows isn’t just an apology; it’s a reordering of his entire worldview.

Character Journey

Hank’s arc tracks the anatomy of grief. He begins as the gatekeeper of the ranch and of family pain, rejecting Jack’s homecoming and forbidding him from touching anything connected to Drew. The pressure builds toward the dinner-table confrontation, where Jack reveals that Drew was driving the night of the crash (Chapter 24). In that instant, Hank’s certainty—his whole scaffolding of blame—collapses. He moves from accusation to empathy, from guarding the past to rebuilding the future. By the story’s end, he and Jack work together on Drew’s unfinished boat and stand united at the Thanksgiving bonfire (Chapter 28 in Chapter 26–30 Summary), signaling that Hank’s loyalty has shifted from protecting grief to protecting healing.

Key Relationships

  • Jack Stapleton: Hank’s relationship with Jack is a knot of brotherly love strangled by resentment. He despises what he sees as Jack’s escape into fame and his absence when the family needed him most. After learning the truth about the accident, Hank’s embrace of Jack is both absolution and a promise: they will mourn as brothers, not opponents.

  • Drew Stapleton: Drew is the measure of Hank’s love and loss. Hank idealizes him—and polices his memory—so fiercely that any perceived disrespect (like Jack offering to help with Drew’s boat) feels like sacrilege. Only when the truth of Drew’s agency emerges can Hank love Drew honestly rather than as a symbol.

  • Connie Stapleton: Hank’s protectiveness of his mother is the engine of his conflict with Jack. He believes shielding Connie from stress requires excluding Jack and any “Hollywood” baggage. His shift from gatekeeping to welcoming Jack and Hannah marks Hank’s acceptance that real protection means telling the truth and letting family back in.

  • Hannah Brooks: Hank initially dismisses Hannah as a frivolous prop from Jack’s life. But her steadiness under pressure and loyalty to Jack (and the family) win him over. When he publicly backs Hannah over Kennedy Monroe, he proves he’s no longer vetting people by their proximity to Hollywood, but by their character.

Defining Moments

Hank’s pivotal scenes peel away his armor: each one exposes what he fears most—losing control of the narrative of Drew’s death—and then replaces fear with truth.

  • The first confrontation in the pasture: He orders Jack to leave as soon as he arrives. Why it matters: It establishes Hank as both antagonist and guardian, the person who sees pain coming and tries to slam the gate shut.
  • The argument over Drew’s boat (Chapter 15): He forbids Jack from touching the boat and the conflict turns physical. Why it matters: The boat is sacred to Hank; barring Jack from it is his last stand against reinterpreting Drew’s memory.
  • The dinner-table revelation (Chapter 24): Jack reveals Drew was driving the night of the accident. Why it matters: Hank’s entire architecture of blame collapses, and he pivots instantly to compassion—an emotional whiplash that signals genuine repentance rather than grudging acceptance.
  • The Thanksgiving bonfire (Chapter 28): Hank raises his hand for Hannah over Kennedy Monroe. Why it matters: This public allegiance shows he’s no longer gatekeeping via contempt; he’s embracing the family Jack is choosing and the future they’re building.

Essential Quotes

“For the record, I don’t want you here.”
— Hank to Jack, Chapter 8
Hank’s boundary-setting is blunt, even cruel, but it’s the language of a man who equates presence with danger. The line crystallizes his role as the gatekeeper of the ranch and signals that reconciliation will require dismantling two years of defensive hostility.

“This is a private, family matter. The last thing Mom needs right now is to be entertaining some Hollywood bimbo.”
— Hank to Jack, regarding Hannah’s presence, Chapter 12
Hank cloaks his grief in contempt for Hollywood, using class and cultural bias as a shield. By reducing Hannah to a stereotype, he tries to keep the family’s pain contained—an impulse he later rejects when he recognizes her steadiness and care.

“Don’t talk about the boat. Don’t go near the boat. Don’t touch the boat. And for God’s sake don’t ever offer to help build it again.”
— Hank to Jack, Chapter 15
The repetition reads like a ritual incantation—Hank’s attempt to control a sacred object that represents Drew. Policing the boat lets him police grief itself; forbidding Jack to help is a way to punish him and to preserve a version of the past that feels safer than the truth.

“You got in the car—drove too fast—hit the bridge going eighty-five—spun out on the black ice—crashed through the railing and plunged yourself and our baby brother into an icy cold river! Which part of that didn’t kill him?”
— Hank confronting Jack with his version of the truth, Chapter 24
This breathless avalanche of blame shows how Hank’s grief hardened into a narrative he could survive. The cadence mimics a prosecution’s closing argument—until evidence overturns it. When the story changes, Hank does too, revealing that his certainty was always a scaffold, not a fortress.