Suzanne Kay is the daughter of American actress and singer Diahann Carroll and her ex-husband record producer, Monte Kay. She is also known for being the former partner of Mark Bamford.
Suzanne was born Suzanne Patricia Ottukue Kay on September 9, 1960, in Santa Monica, California, USA, to celebrity parents, Diahann and Monte.
Kay graduated from The Athenian School and then enrolled at Wesleyan University for her Bachelor’s in 1982. She later joined Columbia University – Graduate School of Journalism in 1985 and completed her Master’s of Science in Journalism in 1986.
Death of Mother
Suzanne Kay’s mother, Diahann Carroll died from cancer on October 4, 2019. She was 84.
Source: Instagram
Kay was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. She went through radiation therapy and got rid of it. But it came back and claimed her life.
Carroll’s memorial was held on November 24, 2019, at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York.
Diahann’s net worth was estimated at around $20 million at the time of her death. Following her demise, her daughter, Suzanne received all of her multimillion-dollar fortunes.
Death of Father
Suzanne’s father, Monte Kay passed away on May 25, 1988. He was 63.
Source: Instagram
The music producer died of heart failure in Los Angeles.
Relationship with Mark Bamford
Suzanne Kay was married to screenwriter and producer, Mark Bamford. They tied the knot on March 21, 1996. The duo is said to have met first in LA.
Five years after tying the knot in 2001, they moved to Cape Town, South Africa, to work on a feature film. They initially planned to leave a year prior but her pregnancy hindered their relocation.
While there, the duo helped refugees from the Congo and Rwanda war. They taught refugees English and prepared them to adjust to life in South Africa. During their time there, they also wrote their feature film, Cape of Good Hope.
Initially, the idea was to leave Los Angeles, write for a year, return with the finished script, and shoot it in America. However, after having taught English to refugees escaping civil war in the Congo and Rwanda during our first year in Cape Town, we saw how important the work was, so decided to stay. We began working on our feature film. As events unfolded and we got to know diverse people, we decided we wanted the film to reflect the human side of South Africa.
Unfortunately, after 20 years of marriage, Kay and Bamford parted ways in 2016.
Mother of Two
During her marriage with Patrick Bamford, Suzanne Kay welcomed two children, Sydney and August Bamford.
Source: Instagram
August was born as Suzanne and Mark’s first child. He graduated from The Beekman School and joined Skidmore College in 2020.
He’d worked at Baha’i World Center for a year from 2019 to 2020.
Sydney graduated from The Brearley School in 2021. She joined The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania on August 23, 2021.
Source: Instagram
Sydney currently works as a public relations intern at Camron PR. She’s also working as an Alumni Relations committee member for Wharton Women.
Prior to that, she worked as a marketing consultant at Moxie Chic. She was there for almost three years from September 2018 to June 2021.
Career as a Journalist
Suzanne Kay started her career as a news intern and writer for CNN in 1982. A year later, she joined Essence Magazine as an Arts and Entertainment Editor.
In 1987, she started working as an on-air host for E! Entertainment Television. Two years after leaving ETV in 1990, she joined Twentieth Century Fox as a staff writer.
Kay worked as a producer and writer for Wonder View Films for 10 years from 2000 to 2010. During that time, she co-wrote and produced Cape of Good Hope and Hero alongside her ex-husband.
For one and a half years, Suzanne worked as the director of content development at Sankofa.org. In February 2017, he joined Ed Sullivan Documentary as a producer but left the job in July 2019.
Since July 2019, she started working as a producer and writer for Kaymont Entertainment.
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