In her youth, she was described to be intelligent and resolute, and when she saw Gao Huan, who was then too poor even to own a horse, serving as a soldier and standing guard on Pingcheng's wall, she became so impressed by him that she, against customs of the times that women's marriages were to be arranged by parents, became resolved to marry him, sending her servant girls to Gao Huan to deliver messages and monetary gifts for her.

It was only after their marriage that Gao Huan could even afford a horse and was able to become an imperial messenger, delivering the governmental reports between Pingcheng and the new capital Luoyang.

Once, when Gao Huan was severely battered, she cared for him all day and night and nursed him back to health.

In 525, when large portions of Northern Wei territory was overrun by agrarian rebels, Gao Huan, taking his family (then apparently made up of Lady Lou, Gao Cheng, and their oldest daughter), joined the rebellion of one of the major rebels, Du Luozhou (杜洛周), but subsequently became unimpressed with Du's behavior, and they fled from Du's camp and joined another rebel leader, Ge Rong (葛榮), but he eventually left Ge as well and joined the army of the Northern Wei general and Xiongnu tribal leader Erzhu Rong.

[3] Erzhu was initially unimpressed with Gao and did not give him great responsibilities; it was around this time that the family's wealth was so drained that Lady Lou herself made boots personally out of horse skin.

In 530, Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei, suspicious that Erzhu Rong would eventually seize the throne, ambushed him in the palace and killed him.

Emperor Xiaowu, however, strained to free himself from Gao Huan, and their relationship soon deteriorated, as Emperor Xiaowu entered into alliances with the independent generals Yuwen Tai, who controlled the western provinces, and Heba Sheng (賀拔勝), who controlled the southern provinces, against Gao Huan.

Lou Zhaojun supported and assisted Gao Huan when he married more women, wanting to expand his power.

After the incident, however, Gao Huan appeared to continue to honor Princess Lou and turn to her for advice.

In order to try to induce her to smile, Emperor Wenxuan crawled on the ground, but as he did, he flipped her bed over, causing her to fall and suffer an injury.

In another incident involving Emperor Wenxuan's errant behavior, he had considered seizing his wife Empress Li Zu'e's older sister as a concubine, after forcing her into an affair with him, so he summoned her husband Yuan Ang (元昂) to the palace and fired arrows at him, eventually killing him.

Another son of Empress Dowager Lou's, Gao Yan the Prince of Changshan, was one of the few officials who dared to speak to Emperor Wenxuan to try to get him to change his behavior.

Meanwhile, the prime minister Yang Yin—a son-in-law of Grand Empress Dowager Lou, as he had married the former wife of Eastern Wei's Emperor Xiaojing after Emperor Wenxuan killed him around the new year 552—became suspicious that Gao Yan or another son of Grand Empress Dowager Lou, Gao Zhan the Prince of Changguang would try to seize the throne.

Yang's associates Kezhuhun Tianhe (可朱渾天和) and Yan Zixian (燕子獻) were even considering killing the two princes and putting Grand Empress Dowager Lou under house arrest and transferring her authority to Emperor Fei's mother Empress Dowager Li.

However, what they considered were leaked to Grand Empress Dowager Lou by Empress Dowager Li's lady in waiting Li Changyi (李昌儀), and the two princes took preemptive action, ambushing Yang and his associates and forcing them into the palace.

When he initially reported this intention to Grand Empress Dowager Lou, she disagreed with it, as she believed that this would be seen as usurpation.

Emperor Xiaozhao was considered filially pious, and when once she became ill, he attended her for 40 days without resting.

When soon thereafter, Emperor Xiaozhao had a riding accident and suffered a severe injury, Empress Dowager Lou attended to him, but as she did, she asked where the Prince of Ji'nan was.

When his trusted advisor He Shikai requested that the music be stopped, Emperor Wucheng was sufficiently angry that he slapped He.