Irina (1895–1970)

Princess. Name variations: Irene Yusupov; Irina Alexandrovna Youssoupoff or Yussoupov; Irina Alexandrovna Romanov or Romanova. Born Irina Alexandrovna Romanova on July 3, 1895; died in 1970; married Felix Yussoupov (1887–1967), count Soumarokov-Elston, in 1914; daughter of Xenia Alexandrovna (1876–1960) and Grand Duke Alexander Michaelovitch (grandson of Nicholas I of Russia).

Princess Irina, the niece of Tsar Nicholas II, was the sponsor of the notorious Rasputin, a Siberian peasant and self-proclaimed holy man who entered the circle of personal acquaintances surrounding the Russian imperial family sometime after 1905. Tsar Nicholas and especially Empress Alexandra Feodorovna welcomed Rasputin because of the healing powers he supposedly possessed; he seemed to be able to treat the imperial couple's only son, Alexis, who suffered from hemophilia. In 1914, Irina married Felix Yussoupov, count Soumarokov-Elston. Two years later, Felix was among the nobles who poisoned, shot, clubbed and drowned Rasputin in Petrograd.

With the help of Fanny Holtzmann , Princess Irina sued MGM in British courts over that studio's depiction of her as an intimate of Rasputin in Rasputin and the Empress (1933). After the well-publicized trial, Irina was awarded $125,000 in damages for the showing of the film in England. Holtzmann then reached a settlement for suits pending in most of the countries where the film was shown, for a sum well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.