Kate Mulgrew on real-life drama in new book

what made you want to write a book now I wanted to be known to be known yeah for 40 years I've been an actress playing other people you called my food disgusting she's known for playing red Reznick off gay stars the head of the prison kitchen in orange is the new black killed as a skeleton in a body bag Wow captain Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek Voyager it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to answer questions about what our future plans are and one of Sam Malone's girlfriends we're on Cheers I mean haven't you ever thought about you and me tying the knot oh now you tell me he didn't go in for that kinky stuff thank you very very nice dear but to become known for herself meant Kate Mulgrew had to write about some painful subjects the early deaths of her two younger sisters a rape and perhaps most painful of all her choice to give her firstborn child up for adoption what part of this was you confronting you a big part was it scary down there the scariest part was that I would be dishonest in any way Catherine Kiernan Mulgrew grew up in Dubuque Iowa in a large Irish Catholic family her dramatic talents were apparent early here she is just out of high school in a local radio play you must help me get away from here if my name gets associated with the murder my modeling career will be finished by age 20 she'd moved to New York and quickly landed a starring role in a new soap opera about an Irish family bar in the city called Ryan's hope I've been to the how quickly did Brian's hope kind of catapult me yeah overnight no gaggles of girls would stop me in the streets of New York Mary Ryan Mary Ryan I remember that was big that first season she was on top of the world then she got pregnant the father was an assistant director marriage was out of the question there was no way it was gonna work with this baby the two of you know you know he's a good good guy we were just too young they broke up on this bench outside Central Park and he looked at me and not unkindly said I wish I'd never met you at her mother's urging she went to Catholic Charities and agreed to put the unborn baby up for adoption maybe I'll get some clues about my baby before it's born while the producers of Ryan's Hope wrote her pregnancy whoo hey baby into the plot line six million people watch me have this baby and I had the baby and I gave the baby up and went back to work two days later yeah and you have to have a baby on the show yeah how did you get yourself ready for that though that was the hardest moment of my life honey I'm getting scared walking on to that set with that stunt baby and delivering a monologue about love fidelity endurance and I will never leave you it's just you and me love but don't worry you'll be safe and happy no matter what I instantly regretted giving her up it was instant I went immediately the first week I begged you went to the church yeah I begged and so they made a mistake yeah I don't I said no no no no no the decision the church said was unalterable Mulgrew went on with her life she married moved to Seattle and had two sons but part of her never gave up looking for her daughter she will always be in front of me you know I'll find her it would take more than 20 years by then she'd become the first female captain of a Star Trek series you know I'm really easy to get along with most of the time but I don't like bullies and I don't like threats and I don't like you color Mulgrew who can be as fierce in person as she is on screen hired three private investigators and continued to pressure the church finally in 1999 she was contacted by an agency that connects adopted children with their birth parents at 5:00 in the morning she was in her trailer on the set of Star Trek the phone rang hello hello hi this is Daniel Gaudet and I think I am your birth daughter they agreed to meet that weekend at a hotel in Cambridge Massachusetts at noon I got to the lobby at 9:00 hmm you were sitting there for three hours three hours in case I missed her everybody who came through the door where's my daughter finally Daniele appeared she'd been just as stunned the agency had found her birth mother I was like a deer in headlights and they were overjoyed and they're like do you watch Star Trek to me that like no ha how did she seem when you met her from your point of view you can be honest well a very refreshing kind of feeling because there's a likeness so that was really neat thing but then I also felt overwhelmed now a 37 year old yoga instructor Danielle had grown up with her adoptive family in Massachusetts they are meeting Kate began a long healing process that both admit has been hard at times I have one memory of Kate visiting me and she was talking she was telling me a story just sitting across the table but when I tuned into myself there's a screaming girl in my head shouting you have to love me you better love me like not listening at all to anything she's saying which I then saw oh this has this has affected my life many aspects of my life many relationships in my life the healings continued for 17 years now alik right up through when Danielle read born with teeth and her birth mother's description of their first phone call I mean I cried really wept when I read that part this is where her story and my story cross her agony about it and mine it came together at that moment it just clicked inside of my head so it was I had a huge release of emotion when I read it that's pretty cool she's a pretty terrific kid the actress wanted to be known for more than her characters in writing her story Kate Mulgrew knows more about herself now to all of its been quite unexpected and terrific yeah marvelous I mean I love you yes very much so who would have thought this you know

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 502,549

Keywords: video, cbs, news

Id: FNZg3LUO0q8

Length: 8min 41sec (521 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/strangedange]

Wow, that's really powerful. Being adopted myself, it's really only since I turned 30 that I've grown a desire to meet my birth-parents. I always felt it would be disrespectful to my adopted parents, but their job is long done. I do feel like it would help me learn more about myself.