Kay Adams
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Kay Adams is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's The Godfather. She was portrayed by Diane Keaton in Francis Ford Coppola's trilogy of films based on the novel.
Born in 1923, she is the long-term girlfriend and eventual wife of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), the son of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), and the future Godfather. 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. 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 woman, Apollonia (Simonetta Stefanelli). Apollonia is accidentally killed by a car bomb intended for Michael. He returns a year later, when he and Kay reunite and marry. Michael becomes the new Don in 1955 after his father's death.
However, Kay is still very isolated from the decisions Michael makes as new Don. At the beginning of The Godfather, Part II (set in 1958-59), Kay, who is pregnant, 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 (Lee Strasberg) keep him trapped in the criminal underworld. During one of Michael's trips, 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 reveals the truth to him during an argument. Enraged, he banishes her from the family, and the two are soon divorced.
In the 2004 novel The Godfather Returns, a retcon occurs regarding Kay's termination of her pregnancy. Kay suspects Michael of having their family doctor murdered (as he ostensibly believed that this doctor was responsible for the procedure). Kay confronts Michael and confesses that she lied; it was, in fact, a miscarriage (due to stress brought on by neglect) and lied to Michael in order to hurt him.
In The Godfather, Part III (set in 1979-80), Kay and Michael have not been in contact for several years, and Kay has remarried. After an uneasy reunion, the two reconcile their differences, and begin to rekindle their relationship after Michael retires and appoints his nephew Vincent (Andy Garcia) the new Don. Just as they begin a new life together, however, their daughter, Mary (Sofia Coppola), 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 death in 1997.
