Claire is more like her husband became after going underneath the temple. Funny thing is, the Others actually had Rousseau's baby but don't have Claire's and Rousseau managed to keep her sanity and avoid smokey for all those years while Claire was apparently mind-melted by Smokey in some way.
I think that he is her "friend" and knows he isn't Lock confirms that it was definitely Smokey that kept appearing as Christian Shepard (there were some other theories about that).