[3][4] She was born in 1859 in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany (now Italy), into an old noble House of Keshko, as the first child of Russian colonel Petre Keșco[5] (1830–1865) of Bessarabia and his wife, Moldavian Princess Pulcheria Sturdza (1831–1874).

In the end, she married Prince Milan Obrenović IV of Serbia on 17 October 1875, whom she previously met at a ball in Vienna, despite initial objections from both Muruzi and Manukbey families.

When Prince Milan proclaimed the Kingdom of Serbia in 1882 after securing international recognition, Princess Natalie assumed the title and rank of a Queen.

[11][12] These conflict developed into a public scandal when the Queen - accompanied by her child, the eleven-year-old Crown Prince Alexander - left Serbia and settled in the Russian Crimea in May 1887.

The public private scandal turned into politics when the King used the German police in July 1888 to bring the young Crown Prince back to his kingdom.

When the consistorium of Belgrade took over the case the Queen rejected the King's wish for divorce and advocated the several attempts to reconcile the couple according to ecclesiastical law.

[15] An immediate political consequence of these dynastic conflicts was the new right of succession to the throne proclaimed during the parliamentary sessions regarding the new constitution of Serbia.

But the regency denied her royal style (she should be announced just as Mme Keshko) and - after she insisted to be still the ex-king's wife and rightful Queen of Serbia - any meeting with her son.

In April 1891, ex-king Milan - after several interferences in government affairs - announced his intention to leave Serbia until his son should be old enough to take over the rule.

After ex-king Milan had returned to Serbia in January 1894 and took the position as deputy of his son and commander-in-chief of the army, King Alexander ordered the complete rehabilitation of his parents and the restoration of their royal prerogatives in April 1894 - despite the protests of the radical opposition.

His parents had previously arranged a marriage to a suitable German Princess Alexandra Karoline of Schaumburg-Lippe, sister of the Queen of Württemberg, which never took place.

[19] After that, ex-king Milan resigned as army commander and left Serbia for the rest of his life; he died in Vienna a year later, in 1901.

Queen Natalie spent the remaining years of her life in exile in France under the name Comtesse de Roudnik (Countess of Rudnik), which stood in her diplomatic passport, opting to officially hide her true identity.

The last winter before she died in 1941, she spent with her friend, Jehanne Henriette Emilie Vivaux, née Piarron de Mondesir (1886-1966), niece of General Jean Frédéric Lucien Piarron de Mondésir in Lardy, Essonne, a small town near Paris, where she was buried at the local cemetery.