Lorelai has a strained relationship with her wealthy parents, Richard and Emily, after running away as a teen to raise her daughter alone.

Besides an on-again, off-again relationship with Rory's father, Christopher Hayden, Lorelai had a few romantic relationships that included Max Medina, a teacher at Rory's school, Chilton, to whom she was briefly engaged; Alex Lesman, an outdoorsy coffee house entrepreneur; Jason Stiles, a childhood acquaintance, and Luke Danes, the owner of Luke's Diner in her adopted hometown of Stars Hollow, Connecticut.

Named after her paternal grandmother, Lorelai was raised in Hartford, Connecticut, by her wealthy parents who wanted her to be a proper young lady of high society, go to an Ivy League college, and marry a man with wealth and status.

Her early life was complicated by the high expectations of an overbearing mother and workaholic father; both parents wanted their daughter to fulfill the aspirations of their world of privilege.

[1] After giving birth to her daughter, Rory, on October 8, 1984, at the age of 16, Lorelai lived with her parents at their mansion in Hartford briefly before running away to Stars Hollow, a small fictional town in rural Connecticut, to find her own life.

The owner of the local Independence Inn, Mia, gave Lorelai a job as a maid and let her and Rory live in the back in a renovated potting shed.

In exchange for paying for Rory's tuition at Chilton, Emily and Richard instate mandatory "Friday night dinners", to which Lorelai reluctantly agrees, allowing them to get to know their granddaughter.

When Lorelai wants to split, as it becomes too serious, she kisses Max in Chilton, provoking a scandal in the school and ending their relationship.

Suddenly, Lorelai calls off the wedding and decides to go on a road trip with Rory, during which they visit Harvard University.

During the evening, Lorelai and Christopher kiss, and she finds him changed, but he tells her he is now in a serious relationship with a woman named Sherry.

Christopher returns to Stars Hollow, and after he tells Lorelai he has problems in his relationship with Sherry, they spend the night together before Sookie's wedding.

After several days, the two meet at a Chilton parent committee evening, and Max makes it clear he does not want them to reunite.

On Lorelai's birthday, Richard gives her a payout from an investment he had made at her birth; however, she decides to repay her parents for the loan, which shocks Emily.

In the fourth season, Luke marries lawyer Nicole on a cruise, but they soon divorce, and Lorelai and Sookie begin the renovations of the inn.

Richard forms a new partnership with his former associate's son, Jason Stiles, who happens to be an old summer camp friend of Lorelai's.

After he disagrees with Emily about Richard's new business launch party, Lorelai, furious, goes to talk to him, and at the end of their discussion, he invites her to dinner, but she refuses.

In the fifth season, Lorelai embarks on a relationship with Luke after discovering Rory has lost her virginity to married Dean, her first love and former boyfriend.

At Richard and Emily's wedding renewal ceremony, Lorelai finally admits to Luke her visit to Christopher when she notices his presence.

When Christopher receives an inheritance, he starts to pay for Yale, and Friday night dinners are no longer mandatory.

When Lorelai returns home and informs Rory and the rest of Stars Hollow, including Luke, that she and Christopher are married, she gets mixed reactions.

The show ends with Lorelai and Luke's wedding at dawn in the center of Stars Hollow, where some of her closest friends, Michel, Lane, Kirk, and Rory, are present.

The role required someone who could act, who could make you cry, who could break your heart, who was funny and gorgeous and tough and sexy and vulnerable.

Three other actresses, including Nina Garbiras, were initially considered to play Lorelai, but the network rejected them and instead mentioned the name of Lauren Graham.

[4] Before landing the role of Lorelai in Gilmore Girls, Graham starred in many short-lived TV shows, guest appeared in a number of top 10 prime-time comedies and did commercial work.

"The fact that you had someone that talented running around Hollywood, not found yet, was the biggest coup in the world", she said "Because Lorelai's a hard part.

"[6] Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times described Lorelai and Rory as "unsentimental brainiacs" who, if they could see Gilmore Girls, would hate its sentimentality of the last and final season.

"[7] On the characteristic of talking fast, Sherman-Palladino noted: "Just by listening to Lorelai's vocal patterns, it says volumes about this woman: First of all, that she's bright enough to put that many words together that quickly... and it says a lot about her emotionally, that she's got a deflection shield that's sort of the way she gets through the world, which says survivor.

"[9] Margaret Lyons of Vulture.com wrote an analysis on Lorelai pointing out her flaws: "Both Gilmores have an exaggerated sense of their own wonderfulness, though I suppose, in their defense, those around them seem to play along.

"[13] The New York Times TV columnist Virginia Heffernan said the character was "painful and surprising and exciting to watch — a marvelous high-wire act.

On May 11, 2008, TiVo released the results of a survey conducted by eRewards Market Research on Television's Top Moms.