Nikita Romanovich first appears in the historical record in 1547, when, on the occasion of the Tsar's wedding with Anastasia Romanovna, he was promoted to spalnik and stolnik.
Before his death (March 1584) Ivan the Terrible left his two sons, Feodor and Dmitry, to the care of trusted associates.
Until illness incapacitated him in late 1584, Nikita Romanovich, as the only uncle of Tsar Feodor I, led the regency.
His first wife, Varvara Ivanovna Khovrina-Golovina (d. 18 June 1556), was the daughter of the hereditary treasurer of Tsardom of Russia and of a Rurikid princess.
They had two daughters: Nikita Romanovich second wife, Evdokiya Alexandrovna Gorbataya-Shuyskaya (d. 4 April 1581), another Rurikid princess from the Shuysky branch, was a sixth cousin of the future Vasili IV.