[4] At the age of six, she was legally adopted by her grandmother, Princess Abigail Campbell Kawānanakoa, in the Hawaiian tradition of hānai with the intention that she remain a direct heir to a possible restoration of the kingdom.

On February 10, 1883, David Kawānanakoa was granted the title of Prince and style of His Royal Highness by King Kalākaua through Letters Patent.

[8] In 1986, she told writer Marilyn Kim that, had the kingdom continued, it was her cousin Edward A. Kawānanakoa who would have been heir to the Kawānanakoa\Kalākaua lines, as he was the first born of the oldest sibling, but joked that she would be the "power behind the throne.

Jon M. Van Dyke, a University of Hawaii law professor, states in his book Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai'i?

[15] In 2013, Kawānanakoa requested to be buried in a new crypt at the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii at Mauna ʻAla directly adjacent to the Wyllie Tomb.

[20] In 1952, Kawānanakoa was briefly engaged to Peter Perkins, a male model and star player on the Oahu polo team, although they did not marry.

[23] Wright, a trustee for the multimillion-dollar Abigail K. K. Kawananakoa Revocable Living Trust, made accusations that Worth abused her 92-year-old spouse.

[29][30] Her body returned to the mortuary at Oahu Cemetery after the private funeral service to await burial upon the completion of the tomb at Mauna ʻAla.

Her tomb of black granite and flecks of gold is on the makai (seaward) side of the entrance to Mauna Ala, has a 15-by-15-foot foundation and is 8 feet tall.