[1] Darinka was the daughter of the rich Serbian merchant and banker Marko Kvekić and his wife, Jelisaveta Mirković.

She dressed in French fashion, brought her own Western European staff and furniture to the Princely Residence in Cetinje, and arranged court functions to which her guests were invited to dance the waltz to foreign music, and she entertained them playing the piano.

[1][4] This was normal in the upper class life of Western Europe but new in Montenegro, and Darinka was both admired for the glamour she brought, as well as resented as vain and accused of draining the state treasury with her extravagance.

[1][4] She gave Montenegro a cosmetic polish of Western Europe by convincing Damilo to abolish traditional Medieval customs such as displaying the severed heads of enemies on the square.

Darinka initially kept her dominant position at court also after the death of Danilo and during his successor, Nicholas, with whom she was close.

[7] She built her own palace in Cetinje 1863-1867 and made several trips to Western Europe, and the fact that Nicholas paid her expenses from the state treasury, allowed her political influence and neglected his wife Milena for Darinka, resulted in opposition to her presence in Montenegro.