content: '''Catelyn Stark''' (née '''Tully''') is a fictional character in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its television adaptation ''Game of Thrones''.  She is a prominent point of view character in the first three novels.
  Introduced in 1996's ''A Game of Thrones'', Catelyn is the wife of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell, the Warden of the North, and is mother to five of his children, but resents his bastard son Jon Snow.  She was born into House Tully of Riverrun, the lord paramount clan of the Riverlands, another one of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, and has two younger siblings, sister Lysa and brother Edmure.  Catelyn was originally betrothed to Eddard's older brother Brandon Stark, the heir to Winterfell at the time, and married Eddard instead after the former's death leading up to Robert Baratheon's rebellion against House Targaryen.
  Catelyn is portrayed by Northern Irish actress Michelle Fairley on the HBO series ''Game of Thrones''.  American actress Jennifer Ehle was originally cast as Catelyn Stark and appeared in the unaired pilot, but left the series for family reasons before the first season began. Fairley's portrayal of Catelyn has garnered critical acclaim, with many in particular praising her performance during the episode "The Rains of Castamere". Due to this popularity, many fans were disappointed she did not appear in the series' fourth season, despite the character's resurrection in the novels.