‘Gilmore Girls’: Was Anna Jealous of Lorelai’s Relationship With Luke?
Anna Nardini was one of the most polarizing characters on Gilmore Girls. While some fans loved her relationship with her daughter and her strong independent woman personality, others couldn’t stand her dismissiveness toward Lorelai, leading some fans to believe she was jealous of Lorelai’s relationship with Luke.
Anna didn’t want Luke in April’s life
Anna and Lorelai were similar in several ways. They had great relationships with their children and were both strong independent women who ran their own businesses and raised their daughters alone.
However, unlike Lorelai, Anna didn’t encourage April to look for Luke and never encouraged April to include him in her life. Fans met April in the show’s sixth season when she showed up at his diner, claiming she could be his biological daughter.
As it turned out, April’s mother was Luke’s former flame who had withheld the information about the child deciding to raise her alone. April’s curiosity was what led their paths to cross again, but just because Luke was April’s father didn’t mean that Anna made it easy for him.
Anna kept referring to their child as hers and tried shutting Luke out when he wanted to get to know April better. The custody battle got so bad that Anna and Luke went to court, where the judge granted them joint custody.
Some fans think Anna was jealous of Lorelai’s relationship with Luke
A few fans on Reddit said Anna could have been jealous of Lorelai because she felt Lorelai’s relationship with Luke would make her a parental figure to April, and she wanted to be the only special adult in April’s life. “She’s jealous of Lorelai not because of Luke but because of April,” one user wrote.
“I think she was jealous about April having a relationship with them. Not anything romantic,” another user chimed. One fan in a separate Reddit thread said, “Anna was jealous. If Lorelai was simply a quirky small-town business partner of Luke’s who owned the local beauty parlor, Anna would have been all good with things.”
It makes sense that Anna could have been acting out of jealousy, at least in part, when it came to her feelings about Lorelai staying out of things. After all, Anna’s knowledge of Luke and children was him not wanting to sit near kids at the movies or restaurants, but he had changed in the years since they split. Anna very likely was jealous that Lorelai watched Luke grow into a man who’d make a great father.
Lorelai was always grateful for Luke’s relationship with Rory and how caring he could be with her kid. She also watched him struggle to raise a troubled teen with Jess, meaning Lorelai saw what Anna didn’t or wouldn’t let herself see. It’s possible seeing the relationship Luke built with Lorelai made Anna regret not giving him a chance to be in her and April’s life.
Anna wanted Lorelai to be sure about Luke before getting close to April
In season six, episode 20, Lorelai helped throw April a birthday party, which infuriated Anna. Anna called Luke out for allowing the party to happen, telling him April wasn’t a sweater she could borrow. When Lorelai tried to explain the situation to Anna, she told Lorelai things would be different if she and Luke were married before Lorelai could get involved with April’s life.
April and Lorelai had hit it off almost immediately, and given she was Luke’s fiancée, it made a lot of sense that she would spend a lot of time with April. But due to Anna and Luke’s refusal to allow Lorelai a role in April’s life, Lorelai broke off her and Luke’s engagement, as she was sick of having lives that were so separate.
