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- "Is it true?"
- ―Kay Adams[src]
Katherine "Kay" Michelson (née Adams), formerly Kay Corleone, was the long-term girlfriend and then-second wife, of Michael Corleone. She was a schoolteacher by profession and the mother of Anthony and Mary Corleone.
Biography[]
Kay was born to Thornton Adams, a Baptist pastor from New Hampshire, and his wife Agnes Adams. Kay and her family lived in the small town of Hanover, home to Dartmouth College which Michael attended. Kay herself was an excellent student and attended a different college because Dartmouth was then all-male. She and Michael fell in love after meeting in Hanover in 1945. Though Kay and Michael believed their relationship to be a secret, Kay's concerned parents had read some of her mail and discovered the truth, but did not disapprove of the relationship.
As a non-Italian, she was somewhat of an outsider from the beginning and symbolized Michael's initial desire to live a more Americanized life, in contrast to the Corleone family's criminal enterprises. She attended Connie's wedding with Michael, and most of the guests thought her to be somewhat more free-spirited than they'd come to expect from an unmarried woman. Kay was taken aback when Michael told her how his father helped Johnny Fontane's career by threatening to kill his manager, but Michael assured her "That's my family Kay, not me".
Kay & Michael Christmas shopping in 1945.
Relationship[]
Kay was independent, intelligent, and educated; traits that Michael loves. (In the books) during their relationship, they would often joke about sexist beliefs in his culture.
Michael and Kay at Connie's wedding in 1945.
After Michael kills Sollozzo and McCluskey to avenge the assassination attempt on his father in 1946, he and Kay are forcibly separated while he takes refuge in Sicily. On at least one occasion, she asked Tom Hagen to give Michael a letter, but Tom refused out of concern for possible criminal liability. In the meantime, Kay graduated from college and took a job as an elementary school teacher in her hometown. During this time, she developed a warm relationship with Michael's mother, Carmela, who encouraged her to move on from Michael.
While Michael was in hiding, he fell in love with a Sicilian girl, Apollonia Vitelli, and married her immediately, like the customs of the time in Sicily. The marriage ended after a few months because of an attack directed towards Michael that killed Apollonia instead. Approximately a year after Michael's return to America, he reunited with Kay, and the two married. Kay only knew that her husband had some woman during his time away and most likely she never did know about his first marriage.
Marriage[]
Michael returned to the United States two years later. In the book: Initially he didn't communicate his return to Kay, but she called his mother Carmela to know if he was okay, with the hope of having some news. She was informed that he had returned, so they met again. In the film: Michael went looking for her a few months later, while she was working. Kay was still in love with him and hadn't stopped waiting for him. The two immediately become close, having already been engaged. By this time, Michael had been named as his father's heir apparent, and Kay was surprised and confused to find out Michael was now fully immersed in his family's criminal enterprises. However, after Michael promised to make the Corleone family completely legitimate within five years, Kay agreed to marry him.
Michael asks Kay to marry him
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Kay and Michael (deleted scene)
Kay had two children with Michael, Anthony and Mary (in the book they are two boys). They were born within two years of each other, leading Michael to joke that Kay is "more Italian than Yankee". Kay replied that Michael is "more Yankee than Italian" because he always brings his work home with him.
Michael became the operating head of the Corleone family in 1954 and succeeded his father as Don after his death a year later. When a hysterical Connie accused Michael of orchestrating a wave of murders — including that of her husband, Carlo Rizzi — Kay asked Michael if his sister was telling the truth. Michael initially refused to tell her, but in response to her repeated pleas, falsely denied that he is responsible. Immediately afterward, Michael received his caporegimes, and Peter Clemenza kissed Michael's hand and greeted him as "Don Corleone". Unknown to them, Kay watched the whole thing. She realized Connie was telling the truth after all, and her husband had become his father's successor in every way. Horrified, she initially fled back to New Hampshire with their children, but Tom Hagen eventually persuaded her to return. Upon her return, Kay converted to Catholicism, going to Mass every day to pray for her husband's soul, just as Carmela had done for Vito.
Michael's change between before Sicily and his return, his ruthlessness and his constant lies, which hide the truth about his business affairs, deeply hurt Kay who, even if she still appeared to be in love with him, suffered from all of this.
Life in Nevada[]
Kay at Lake Tahoe
Kay was still very isolated from the decisions Michael made as the new Don. However, she was not content to be as docile as Carmela had been. During her third pregnancy, she implored Michael to fulfill his promise of legitimizing the family business, as seven years have passed despite his promise that the family would be legitimate in five. Michael made a sincere effort to break the family's criminal ties, but his escalating war with rival Hyman Roth kept him trapped in the criminal underworld and his obsession with revenge.
Kay and Michael dancing
In a bad circumstance, Kay found herself in danger. The assassins sent by Roth tried to kill Michael by shooting through the bedroom windows, with Kay on the bed. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Michael protecting Kay during the shooting.
Everyone managed to escape unharmed. Michael then left to attempt to find and deal with the perpetrators of the assassination, leaving Tom Hagen in charge. Hagen, under Michael's orders, refused to let Kay leave the Lake Tahoe compound.
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 your sons into this world! It was an abortion, Michael! It was a son! A son! And I had it killed because this must all end!"
- ―Kay Adams[src]
Kay was increasingly repulsed by Michael's criminal life, particularly the fact that his button men had become Anthony's playmates. She also feared that if the baby turned out to be another son, it would tie them to the Mafia forever. During Michael's trip to Cuba, Kay decided to leave Michael for good, and planned to take Anthony and Mary with her. In the hope of not having another child that will be forced in that type of environment, she confessed to Michael that she secretly aborted the baby. Michael striked her in rage, screaming that she wouldn't take their children away from him
These event were the beginning of the end of their life as a couple. They would later divorce but between them, even after the divorce, there remained a great affection.
Michael hits Kay.
Initially, Michael retained custody of the children, but sometime after ordering Fredo Corleone's murder, he relinquished them to Kay. They had a somewhat frosty relationship over the years, which grew even chillier when Anthony told her that Michael had ordered the death of his uncle Fredo.
The Final Argument[]
- "I know now that it's over. I knew it then. There would be no way, Michael - no way that you could ever forgive me. Not with this "Sicillian thing" that's been going on for 2000 years!"
- ―Kay Adams[src]
- "You won't take my children, Kay."
- ―Michael Corleone[src]
- "I... I will!"
- ―Kay Adams[src]
- "YOU WON'T TAKE MY CHILDREN!!!"
- ―Michael Corleone[src]
- "They're my children too!"
- ―Kay Adams[src]
Michael apologizes to Kay (1980)
A New Life[]
By 1979, Kay and Michael had not been in contact since 1971, and Kay had remarried to Douglas Michelson, a lawyer not involved in organized crime. At this point, Michael extracted himself from criminal enterprises, sold the casinos, and he had been given an honor comparable to knighthood by the Pope, in recognition of his charitable work. They had an uneasy reunion, in which Kay said she dreaded seeing Michael. She also said that as far as she was concerned, Michael was more dangerous as a businessman than he was as a Don. They agreed to a truce after Michael reluctantly consented to permit their son, Anthony, to leave law school and become an opera singer.
Kay and Michael began to reconcile when Kay joined the family in Sicily to watch Anthony's debut. While having lunch together, Michael asked for Kay's forgiveness for giving in to his desire for revenge 20 years earlier, and admitted he truly intended to live an honest life, telling her, "I had a whole different destiny planned." Kay admitted that she still loved Michael. However, shortly afterward, Michael was informed that Don Tommasino has been murdered. In response, Kay said, "It never ends."
At the end of the show, as they left the Opera, a new tragedy unfolded. With the mistaken murder of Mary, the relationship can be considered definitively closed.
Legacy[]
Affectionate Kay and Michael
“Michael loved Kay when he met her, he loved Kay all throughout his life and he loves her to this day. Michael not only loves Kay but he also admires her.” - Al Pacino
"I have no doubt that Michael really really loved Kay and she is the one who means the most to him.” -Francis Coppola
"You were all that I loved and valued most in this world. And now I'm losing you. I lost you anyway. You're gone." -Michael Corleone[src]
"I have always loved you, Michael." -Kay Adams[src]
Unlike many of the Corleone wives, Kay would often ask questions. She was known to be intelligent, free-spirited and sweet, and Michael really appreciates these aspects of Kay's personality.
Kay was known to be a gentle and kind mother who wanted the best for her children but was stuck in a unfortunate situation, in her life, and in her marriage due to Michael lying to her countless times, also because he knew that his business affairs were absolutely in contradiction with Kay's values, but he also lied because he do not want to lose her.
Gallery[]
Behind the scenes[]
- Kay was portrayed in all 3 films by Diane Keaton. She was a relatively unknown actress at the time of the first film. While she didn't garner an Oscar nomination for her performance, it is considered a career-making role for her.
- Keaton had been in love with Al Pacino, who plays Michael Corleone, during the making of the films, with both of them having a romance in the late 80s, and early 90s. However, they shortly broke up after filming The Godfather Part III.
- While the scene where Kay fled to New Hampshire was removed from the first film, it appeared in drafts of the sequel script.
- Michael's pursuit of Kay was partly motivated by the fact that she was free-spirited, she was the humanity in Michael in which he lacked.
- Michael was desperate to have a white-Americanized life. Ironically, Michael himself would be used in the same way, when he married Apollonia Vitelli. To the Vitelli family, Michael was seen as an American compared to them, who were native Italians.
- In Mark Winegardner's Puzo-estate authorized novels The Godfather Returns and The Godfather's Revenge, Kay's abortion was a miscarriage. She lied and told Michael that it was an abortion, knowing that he would never forgive her for it and would allow her to get a divorce. Sometime after their divorce, Kay confesses the truth to Michael.