Irina was married to the wealthiest man in Imperial Russia, Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov.

Her husband was one of the men who in 1916 murdered Grigori Rasputin, "holy healer" to Irina's hemophiliac cousin, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich.

9 February] 1914, Irina, the eldest child and only daughter in a family of seven children, was considered one of the most elegant women in Imperial Russia.

Her family had spent long periods living in the south of France beginning in about 1906 because of her father's political disagreements with the Tsar.

[1] Irina's father, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, was carrying on an affair with a woman in the south of France and often asked her mother for a divorce, which she refused to grant him.

At one point, in a fit of enthusiasm, he planned to give all his riches to the poor in imitation of his mentor, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna.

[7] He was persuaded not to do so by his mother, Zenaida, who said he had a duty to marry and continue the family line because he was her only surviving son.

Our eyes met and she made such an impression on me that I reined in my horse to gaze at her as she walked on," he wrote in his memoirs.

Yusupov wrote that Irina, perhaps because she had grown up with so many brothers, showed none of the artifice or lack of honesty that had put him off relations with other women.

[12] When her parents and maternal grandmother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna heard the rumours about Felix, they wanted to call off the wedding.

[13] However, neither he nor Irina appeared to have objected to the morganatic terms of the marriage: "All members of the dynasty who married someone not of royal blood were obliged to sign a document renouncing their rights to the throne.

She wore a diamond and rock-crystal tiara that had been commissioned from Cartier and a lace veil that had belonged to Marie Antoinette.

[10] Irina was given away by her uncle, Nicholas II, and his wedding present to her was a bag of 29 uncut diamonds, ranging from three to seven carats.

Irina asked her first cousin, Crown Princess Cecilie of Prussia to intervene with her father-in-law, Kaiser Wilhelm II, who refused to permit them to leave, but offered them a choice of three country estates to live in for the duration of the war.

Felix's father appealed to the Spanish ambassador and won permission for them to return to Russia via neutral Denmark to Finland and from there to Petrograd.

[11][page needed] Felix converted a wing of his Moika Palace into a hospital for wounded soldiers but avoided entering military service himself by taking advantage of a law exempting only-sons from serving in the war.

[17] Irina's first cousin, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, to whom she had been close when they were girls, was disdainful of Felix: "Felix is a 'downright civilian,' dressed all in brown, walked to and fro about the room, searching in some bookcases with magazines and virtually doing nothing; an utterly unpleasant impression he makes—a man idling in such times," Olga wrote to her father, Tsar Nicholas II, on 5 March 1915 after paying a visit to the Yusupovs.

[inline 1] Both Felix and Irina were aware of salacious rumors regarding Rasputin and his association with the worsening political situation that brought rioting, protests and violence.

[20] Yusupov and his co-conspirators, Vladimir Purishkevich and Dmitri Pavlovich, decided that Rasputin was destroying the country and must be killed.

Irina had been aware that Felix had talked about eliminating Rasputin and it was originally intended that she participate in the murder.

Sixteen members of the family signed a letter asking the Tsar to reconsider his decision due to Dmitri's weak health, but Nicholas II refused to consider the petition.

"[30] Irina's father, "Sandro", visited the couple at Rakitnoye in February 1917 and found their mood "buoyant, but militant.

"[31] Felix still hoped that Nicholas and the Russian government would respond to Rasputin's death by taking steps to address the increasing political unrest.

[32] Felix refused to permit Irina to leave Rakitnoye to join her mother in Petrograd because he felt it was too dangerous.

His decision to exile Felix and Dmitri meant that they were among the few members of the Romanov family to escape execution during the Bolshevik Revolution that followed.

They later returned to the Palace to retrieve jewellery and two paintings by Rembrandt, the sale proceeds of which helped sustain the family in exile.

One of the British officers noted that Irina "appeared shy and retiring at first, but it was only necessary to take a little notice of her pretty, small daughter to break through her reserve and discover that she was also very charming and spoke fluent English".

This philanthropy and their continued high living and poor financial management extinguished what remained of the family fortune.

[35] Later the family lived from the proceeds of a lawsuit they won against MGM for making a 1932 movie called Rasputin and the Empress.

Irina and Felix, close to one another as they were distant from their daughter, enjoyed a happy and successful marriage for more than 50 years.