Lena Kundera, All My Children

Lena Kundera (Olga Sosnovska)

Lena, a “sassy” bisexual from Poland, was introduced as a love interest for Bianca Montgomery and characterized as a temptress “in the mold of Juliette Binoche”. Bianca instantly found Lena attractive and competed for her attention with her male friend Boyd, as they bet on which one of them could date Lena first.

Unbeknownst to Bianca, Lena was working with Michael, her business partner and lover, as part of an “evil plan” to take over Bianca’s mother’s company; however, as Lena began spending time with Bianca she found herself falling in love with her. Lena then refused to continue the manipulation, but was blackmailed by Michael into following through with the takeover. Lena eventually decided to leave town rather than betray Bianca and tell her the truth about her earlier scheme. She informed Bianca that she could never see her again, though Bianca followed Lena to the airport. On April 23, 2003, the two characters shared the first same-sex kiss in American soap opera history.

Double Standards

The physical aspects of Lena and Bianca’s romance were heavily downplayed by the series. Sosnovska described their physical relationship as “kind of ostentatiously reserved” compared to what gets shown between heterosexual couples, “although I’m quite shocked by what does get shown between the heterosexual couples.” In the entire year of Lena and Bianca’s on-again, off-again relationship (between 2003 and 2004), the two women kissed only twice on screen. The final obstacles given to the couple’s onscreen intimacy were Bianca’s rape by Michael and pregnancy with his child, both of which were extremely controversial and seen by viewers as desperate attempts by the network to avoid lesbian love scenes.

AfterEllen then-editor Sarah Warn stated that it was a way to assure Bianca’s continued asexuality: “the pregnant-lesbian storyline” is a favorite refuge for television writers who both want to avoid dealing with the sexual aspects of lesbian relationships and who want to “normalize” the lesbian characters — “to show viewers that, at their core, lesbians are just like heterosexual women — who of course, all want to be mothers.”

In 2004, though Lena and Bianca were finally allowed to kiss for a third time onscreen, it came at the end of their romance, as Lena went back to Poland to tend to her ailing mother and the couple was later written to have broken up over the phone.

Appearances:

• 21 episodes. Between 2003 and 2004

Female love interests:

• Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel, main cast 1988-1998, 2000-2011, 2013)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Yes

Male love interests:

• Boyd Larraby (Marc Menard, guest, 8 episodes)
• Michael Cambias 💀 (William deVry, recurring, 88 episodes)

Relationship story arc with a man: Yes

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Female (Regular), Male (Recurring)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.