Born in Iași, as a member of a high-ranking Boyar Rosetti family, she was the daughter of Postelnic Prince Iordache Rosetti-Solescu (1796-1846) and his wife, Princess Ecaterina Sturdza (d. 1869).

[1] She remained, however, very devoted to her husband in their public life, and was responsible for securing his flight from the country in 1848, after Prince Mihail Sturdza began arresting participants in the Moldavian revolutionary movement.

They returned after the start of Grigore Alexandru Ghica's rule, but Elena suffered from depression after Cuza began engaging in adulterous affairs and left for Paris, France until 1853.

After her return, she became almost completely estranged from her husband, who kept as his mistress Elena Maria Catargiu-Obrenović, the mother of Milan Obrenović (future King of Serbia).

During the coup d'état against her husband (22 February 1866), she was isolated in her apartments by the conspirators, who burst in on Cuza as he was spending the night with Maria Catargi-Obrenović.