Elena is first in the line of succession to the former Romanian throne and headship of the House of Romania[2] as her elder sister Margareta's heir presumptive.

[6] Elena received her primary education in Switzerland[7] and her secondary at Effingham House in Little Common, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex; she was fond of sports during her school years, playing on goal defence in the netball team.

[9] In 1990 along with Elena’s first husband, the then-Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Terry Cooney, and Harry Charrington was a founder-member of the North-East Relief Fund for Romania, which helped victims of the Ceausescu regime.

[10][11] On 26 June 2011, Elena and her second husband Alexander Nixon visited the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington, County Durham, England[12] to present awards to students who went to Romania for voluntary work and helping to build and repair housing in Brașov, a project based around the Roma community.

[6] Elena's first official appearance in Romania was on 19 April 1992 on Easter Day along with former King Michael I, his wife Anne, her first husband Robin Medforth-Mills, and her son Nicholas, where they were met with hundreds of thousands of supporters;[citation needed] Elena and her son Nicholas famously waved the Royal Flag from a balcony in Revolution Square.

[32] Elena was present at the Lying in State of King Michael I in December 2017[33][34] and Queen Anne in August 2016 (held firstly at Peles Castle, and then in the Throne Room of the Royal Palace in both cases), at their public funerals[35] in Bucharest and at their burials in Curtea de Argeș.

Elena currently spends her time between Britain with her second husband Alexander and her daughter Elisabeta-Karina at her estate in Easington, County Durham and in Romania at Elisabeta Palace.