She is known for her love affair with the future Alexander III of Russia, who attempted to renounce his place as heir to the throne in order to marry her, a plan he was forced to abandon.

The Empress was forced to turn for help to her relative Princess Elizaveta Nikolaievna Chernysheva (widow of the Minister of War Alexander Chernyshyov), and asked her to take Maria in.

M. E. Meshcherskaya also rode with us on horseback and often visited Pavlovsk with us ”.Gradually she is included in the company formed at the court from the representatives of the "golden youth".

According to a contemporary, the Princess was "extraordinarily beautiful, wonderfully built, rather tall, her black eyes, deep and passionate, gave her graceful face an extraordinary charm.

On June 7, he wrote in his diary: "Every day is the same, it would be unbearable if it were not for M." [2]They allegedly met by chance on a walk in the park, but soon the Emperor and Empress learned about this relationship.

As a souvenir, Marie presented her photo with Sasha Zhukovskaya with the inscription: "In remembrance of the last day in dear Tsarskoe."

Maria's cousin, Vladimir Meshchersky, stole the letters to her from the heir to the throne and handed them over to the Empress, after which a scandal erupted in the Imperial family[3] though they continued to meet.

Countess Catherine von Tiesenhausen (1803-1888) claimed that the Maria was behaving indecently, openly running after the heir apparent.

In November 1865, Alexander II expressed a desire for the Tsarevich and Nikolai's former bride, the Danish princess Dagmar of Denmark, to marry.

In March 1867, at the Austrian court, she met the secretary of the Russian embassy in Vienna, the wealthy Pavel Pavlovich Demidov (1839–1885).

In the spring of 1868, before the birth of her son, Maria and her husband moved to Vienna in order to seek the advice of a famous professor.

Her pregnancy was difficult, mother-in-law Aurora Karamzin came to Vienna from Finland in order to support her son and daughter-in-law.

[4] On July 25, 1868, Maria Elimovna gave birth to her son Elim, named after her own father, and died the next day from eclampsia.

On the eve of her death, Maria Elimovna confessed to her friend A. Zhukovskaya that “she never loved anyone except the Tsarevich.” Her husband found a letter addressed to him, in which she said goodbye to him and thanked him for the happiness that he gave her, which had lasted less than a year.

He lived modestly, often took walks, no longer wore a tailcoat, and spent a lot of money on charity work.