She was the daughter of the exiled Italian nobleman Frabrizio Ruffo, Duke of Sasso-Ruffo and the Russian noblewoman Princess Natalia Alexandrovna Mescherskaya.

She married, firstly, to Imperial Russian military officer Major General Alexander Alexandrovitch Friederici and, secondly, to Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia.

During her second marriage, she fled Russia aboard HMS Marlborough following the Russian Revolution and lived abroad as a White émigré in France and the United Kingdom.

[10] They were liberated by German troops and, in December 1918, Elisabetta and her husband fled Russia aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Marlborough.

[10] The family spent the first years of their exile in France, living in the French Riviera home of Prince Andrei's aunt, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna.

They eventually settled in England; first at Frogmore and later at Wilderness House, a grace and favor residence on the grounds of Hampton Court Palace that was leased to Prince Andrei's mother by George VI.