Kay Adams
From The Godfather Wiki
 |
|
| Katherine Adams Michelson | |
|---|---|
| Biographical information | |
| Gender |
Female |
| Eye color |
Brown |
| Hair color |
Blonde |
| Born |
October 2, 1922 (aged 86) |
| Family | |
| Title(s) |
None |
| Portrayed By | |
Kay is the long-term girlfriend and eventual wife of Michael Corleone, the future Godfather of the Corleone family. She is portrayed by Diane Keaton.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Kay was born in 1922 to Thornton Adams and his wife, two WASPs from New England. As a non-Italian, she is somewhat of an outsider from the beginning and symbolizes Michael's initial desire to live a more Americanized life, in contrast to the Corleone family's criminal enterprises.
[edit] Marriage
After Michael kills two men who tried to assassinate his father in 1946, he and Kay are separated while he takes refuge in Sicily, where he briefly marries a local virgin, Apollonia, who is accidentally killed by a car bomb intended for Michael. He returns to The United States a year later, when he and Kay reunite and marry. Michael becomes the new Don in 1955 after his father's death. Due to Michael's marriage to Apollonia occurring entirely in Sicily, Kay is apparently unaware that Michael was a widower when he married her in the USA.
They eventually had two children, Anthony and Mary.
[edit] Life in Nevada
Kay is still very isolated from the decisions Michael makes as the new Don.During her third pregnancy, she implores Michael to fulfill his promise of legitimizing the family business. Michael makes a sincere effort to break the family's criminal ties, but his escalating war with rival Hyman Roth keep him trapped in the criminal underworld and in his personal obsession with revenge.
[edit] The Abortion
- "Oh, Michael. Michael, you are blind. It wasn't a miscarriage. It was an abortion. An abortion, Michael. Just like our marriage is an abortion. Something that's unholy and evil. I didn't want your son, Michael! I wouldn't bring another one of you sons into this world! It was an abortion, Michael! It was a son Michael! A son! And I had it killed because this must all end!"
- ―Kay Adams[src]
During Michael's trip to Cuba, Kay has an abortion, fearing that another male heir would tie the family to the Mafia forever. While she initially tells Michael that it was a miscarriage, she is increasingly repulsed by the campaign of murder and terror he wages in his war with Roth, and she reveals the truth to him during an argument. Enraged, he banishes her from the family; the two are soon divorced.
Initially, Michael retained custody of the children, but after Fredo Corleone's murder, he relinquished them to Kay.
[edit] A New Life
By 1979, Kay and Michael have not been in contact for several years, and Kay has remarried to Douglas Michelson, a lawyer. Michael has extracted himself from criminal enterprises and has even sold the casinos, and he has been given an honor comparable to knighthood by the Pope, in recognition of his charitable work. After an uneasy reunion, the two reconcile their differences and begin to rekindle their relationship after Michael retires and appoints his nephew Vincent the new Don. Michael reluctantly consents to permit their son, Anthony, to become an opera singer. Just as they begin a new life together, however, their daughter, Mary is killed in an assassination attempt on Michael. This tragedy breaks Michael's spirit, and he withdraws from Kay and from life itself until his lonely death in 1997.
