View source for Princess Olga Andreevna Romanoff

{{EngvarB|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Princess Olga Andreevna Romanoff
| image        = Princess Olga of Russia.jpg
| image_size   = 180px
| caption      = Princess Olga in 2011
| succession   = [[Romanov Family Association|President of the Romanov Family Association]]
| reign        = 3 December 2017{{Snd}}present
| reign-type   = Tenure
| predecessor  = [[Prince Dimitri Romanov]]
| house        = [[House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov|Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov]]
| father       = [[Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia]]
| mother       = [[Nadine Sylvia Ada McDougall]]
| spouse       = {{Marriage|Thomas Mathew|1 October 1975|1989|end=separated}}
| issue        = {{Ubl
  |Nicholas Mathew
  |Francis Mathew
  |Alexandra Mathew
  |Thomas Mathew
}}
| full name    = {{Ubl
  |Olga Andreevna Romanoff{{Efn|name=translit-name}}
  |{{Langx|ru|О́льга Андре́евна Рома́нова}}
}}
| birth_date   = {{Birth date and age|1950|4|8|df=yes}}
| birth_place  = [[London]], United Kingdom
}}
'''Princess Olga Andreevna Romanoff'''{{Efn|Princess Olga's birth name, in English, used spelling conventions of the time—Romanoff instead of Romanova.|name=translit-name}} ({{Langx|ru|О́льга Андре́евна Рома́нова|translit=Ólga Andréevna Románova}}; born 8 April 1950) is a [[British nobility|British aristocrat]] and member of the [[House of Romanov]]. She is the grandniece of [[Nicholas II of Russia]] and [[Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)|Alexandra Feodorovna]], the last emperor and empress of [[Russian Empire|Russia]]. Princess Olga serves as the president of the [[Romanov Family Association]], an organisation for descendants of the former [[Russian Imperial House]]. She is the owner of [[Provender House]], a country house in [[Kent]] that she inherited from her mother's family.

==Early life and family==
{{Russian Imperial Family|Nicholas}}
Princess Olga is the youngest child of [[Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia]] and the only one born of his second marriage in 1942, to [[Princess Nadine Romanovskya|Nadine Sylvia Ada McDougall]], daughter of [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lt. Col.]] Herbert McDougall of [[Cawston, Norfolk|Cawston Manor]], member of the [[Clan MacDougall]]. Her father was the son of [[Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia]], who belonged to a [[cadet branch]] of the Romanovs, and his wife [[Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia|Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna]], [[Tsar Nicholas II]]'s sister. Olga Andreevna uses the English version of her family name, preferring "Romanoff" to "Romanova", the [[feminine form]] of her name in Russian. She is known by the title "Princess Olga Andreevna Romanoff".<ref name="telegraph">{{cite news|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|date= 25 March 2017|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/princess-olga-reality-tv-royal-could-have-married-prince-charles/ |title=Princess Olga|accessdate=May 2, 2017}}</ref>

Educated in her mother's [[English country house|country house]] [[Provender House|Provender]], Faversham, Kent, England by private tutors, she was told of her family's tragic imperial heritage in pre-revolutionary Russia as a child by her exiled father.<ref name=telegraph/> She was presented to [[high society|society]] as a [[debutante]] in 1968 at a [[Regency era|Regency]]-themed [[debutante ball|coming-out ball]] hosted by her parents.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://russianroulette.eu/hrh-princess-olga-romanoff/ | title=HRH Princess Olga Romanoff talks about her life as a Royal | date=19 December 2017|website=russianroulette.eu }}</ref>
== Adult life ==
She joined the [[Romanov Family Association]] (RFA) in 1980 and, with other members, attended the long-delayed interment of Russia's last emperor and empress in [[St. Petersburg]] in 1998.<ref name=telegraph/> On 3 December 2017, nearly a year after the death of [[Prince Dimitri Romanovich of Russia|Prince Dimitri Romanovich Romanov]] on the last day of 2016, she was elected president of the RFA.<ref name="russbey">{{cite web|work=[[Russia Beyond]]|date= 11 December 2017|url=https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/326992-romanovs-elect-new-chairman |title=Romanovs Elect New Chairman to Spearhead Dynasty|accessdate=July 18, 2018}}</ref> In the interim, the senior male Romanov descendant by [[primogeniture]], her older half-brother [[Prince Andrew Romanov|Prince Andrew Andreyevich Romanov]] (born 1923), was chosen Honorary RFA president. Olga intended to return for the centenary memorial in 2018,<ref name=telegraph/> at which however, Paul Kulikovsky, a great-grandson of [[Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia|Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna]], and a contingent of other Romanov descendants represented the RFA.<ref name="tass">{{cite news|work=[[Tass]]|date= 17 July 2018|url= http://tass.com/society/1013579 |title=Patriarch Kirill I Leads Procession Commemorating Slain Czarist Family|accessdate= 17 July 2018}}</ref>

She lives at [[Provender House]] in the hamlet of Provender, near [[Faversham]] in Kent,<ref>The East Kent Gazette. 24 August 2011. "Charming tale of the gardener and the maid"</ref> where she has restored the 13th century house and opened it to tourists.<ref name=telegraph/><ref>The East Kent Gazette. 25 May 2011. "A home fit for a princess..."</ref> Having inherited the ageing mansion and {{convert|30|acre|adj=on}} estate in 2000, she raised the money to have it refurbished by selling what was left of her father's cache of pre-revolutionary artefacts, most of which had long since been sold to the British royal family.<ref name=telegraph/>

In 2005, she was on ''[[Australian Princess]]'' (a reality show) giving advice to competitors.<ref name=telegraph/> During an interview on [[Channel 4]] television's "Royal House of Windsor", she corrected the prevalent view that the fatal abandonment by the British of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, and children to the [[Bolsheviks]] during the [[Russian Revolution]] was not due to the callousness of the British government of the day, but to the reluctance of his cousin [[George V]], as was revealed by [[Kenneth Rose]] in his biography of the King.<ref name=telegraph/>

In 2017 she published a memoir, ''Princess Olga, A Wild and Barefoot Romanov''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Princess Olga, A Wild and Barefoot Romanov|url=https://www.shepheard-walwyn.co.uk/product/princess-olga-a-wild-and-barefoot-romanov/|website=Shepheard-Walwyn Publishers|accessdate=13 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ikonlondonmagazine.com/weeks-party-pictures-13102017 |title = Week's Party Celebrity Pictures 13 October 2017 - Ikon London Magazine|date = 13 October 2017}}</ref>

She serves alongside [[Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia]] as a royal patron of the [[Queen Charlotte's Ball]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Why today's 'debutantes' are having a ball again|date=September 2013 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/10277991/Why-todays-debutantes-are-having-a-ball-again.html}}</ref>

== Marriage and children ==
Once suggested by her mother as a possible bride for her third cousin [[King Charles III]],<ref>{{cite news|last=Ghirardani|first=Jane|date=22 August 1998|title=I might be a Russian princess but I still go to [[Safeway (UK)|Safeway]]'s, do all the cleaning and muck out the pony; My Diary: By Princess Olga Romanoff, Housewife.|work=[[Daily Mirror]]}}</ref> she married Thomas Mathew (born 8 July 1945, son of Francis Mathew former manager of ''[[The Times]]''), in nuptials at the [[Dormition Cathedral (London)|Orthodox Cathedral of the Assumption]] and at the [[Brompton Oratory]] on 1 October 1975.<ref name="burke">[[Hugh Massingberd|Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh]]. "[[Burke's Peerage|Burke's]] Royal Families of the World: ''Volume I Europe & Latin America'', 1977, pp. 467, 472–473. {{ISBN|0-85011-023-8}}</ref> A member of the Irish [[gentry]], he also had homes in England at [[South Kensington]] and in the vicinity of [[Hatchlands Park]] in Surrey.<ref name="burke" /> They separated in 1989, having had issue:
* Nicholas Mathew (b. 6 December 1976);
* Francis-Alexander Mathew (b. 20 September 1978);<ref>[http://vk.com/official_page_francis_mathew "Francis-Alexander Mathew-Romanov" ''VK.com'']. Retrieved 29 October 2013 – NOTE: The Peerage.com gives his birthdate as 26 September 1978</ref> freelance photographer.<ref>{{cite web|title=Francis Mathew Photographer|url=http://www.francismathew.com/|publisher=francismathew.com|accessdate=31 January 2012}}</ref> 2012 contestant on Ukraine version of ''[[The Bachelor (U.S. TV series)|The Bachelor]]''.<ref>{{cite web|date=27 January 2012|title=Great-great nephew of Czar Nicholas II looks for love on Ukraine 'Bachelor'|url=http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/01/great-great_nephew_of_czar_nic.html}}</ref> Starred in season 2 of ''[[Secret Princes]]'' as "Prince Alexander".
* Alexandra Mathew (b. 20 September 1981);
* Thomas Mathew (b. 27 November 1987- 20 April 1989).

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commonscatinline}}
* {{IMDb name|id=1551603|name=Princess Olga Romanoff}}
* [http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article1966179.ece Ancestral landscape]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-hou|[[Romanov|House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov]]|8 April|1950|[[House of Oldenburg]]}}
{{S-npo}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Prince Dimitri Romanov]]ich}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Romanov Family Association|President of the Romanov Family Association]]|years=5 December 2017 – present}}
{{S-inc|}}
{{S-end}}
{{Russian princess}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olga Andreevna Romanoff, Princess}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:British debutantes]]
[[Category:British nonprofit executives]]
[[Category:British women business executives]]
[[Category:English people of Russian descent]]
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:House of Romanov in exile]]
[[Category:Nobility from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:People from London]]
[[Category:Princesses of royal blood (Russia)]]
[[Category:Women nonprofit executives]]