Kay Adams

Kay Adams in the final shot of The Godfather.

Kay Adams (played by Diane Keaton) is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's The Godfather.



Born in 1923, she is the long-term girlfriend and eventual wife of Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino), the son of Don Vito Corleone (played by 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. Apollonia is accidentally killed by a car bomb intended for Michael. He returns a year later, when they 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 (as well as his own arrogance) keep him trapped in the criminal underworld. During one of Michael's trips, Kay has an abortion, fearing that another male heir (they already have a son and a daughter at this point) 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 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 (played by Andy Garcia) the new Don. Just as they begin a new life together, however, their daughter, Mary (played by 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.