Kay Adams-Corleone

Katherine Adams-Corleone
Diane Keaton as Kay Adams in The Godfather
First appearance	The Godfather
Last appearance	The Godfather's Revenge
Created by	Mario Puzo
Portrayed by	Diane Keaton
Information
Gender	Female
Occupation	teacher
Family	Corleone family
Spouse(s)	Michael Corleone (1951-60, divorced) 2nd husband Douglas Michelson
Children	Mary Corleone, Anthony Corleone
Religion	Roman Catholic (converted from Baptist)

Katherine "Kay" Corleone (née Adams) (born 1924) 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.

Kay is a native of Hanover, New Hampshire, and the only child of a Baptist minister and his wife. She is the longtime girlfriend and eventual second wife of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), the youngest son of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), the head of the Corleone crime family.

In 1945, while attending Dartmouth College, Kay met and fell in love with Michael, also a student there. As a non-Italian, she is an outsider to the Corleones' world, and symbolizes Michael's initial desire to live a more Americanized and honest life, separate from his family's. When she and Michael attend his sister, Connie's (Talia Shire) wedding, they sit at a table away from the family. In the book, the other guests notice how Kay's manner is freer than expected from an unmarried woman.

Kay is initially unaware that the Corleones are a powerful Mafia family. In the novel, Michael at first attempts to explain his father to her by depicting him as a somewhat unethical business man. When the famous singer Johnny Fontane (Al Martino) arrives at Connie's wedding reception, Kay, a fan, is surprised that Michael knows him, then stunned when he relates how his father "helped" his godson Johnny's early career by threatening to kill his manager unless he released Fontane from his contract.