Prince Alexis Romanoff

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Alex and his wife Zoey; Credit – Alex Romanoff Facebook Page

Prince Alexis Romanoff, a great-great-great-grandson of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, has been one of the disputed pretenders to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family since the death of his father Prince Andrew Romanoff in 2021. The Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and succession to the former Russian throne has been in dispute, mainly due to disagreements over whether marriages in the Romanov family were equal marriages – a marriage between a Romanov dynast and a member of a royal or sovereign house. Alexis’ father Andrew inherited the claim after the death of Prince Dimitri Romanov who had no sons. With his death, the male line of Dmitri’s Nikolavevichi Branch of the Russian Imperial Family descended from Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaevich of Russia, a son of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, became extinct, transferring the claim to the Mikhailovichi Branch, descended from Grand Duke Michael Nicolaevich of Russia, a son of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. Andrew was also the great-grandson of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna, born Princess Dagmar of Denmark, through their elder daughter Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia.

Alex’s parents on their wedding day; Credit – Credit – http://russculture.ru/2021/12/02/ushel-iz-gzizni-poslednii-nastojashii-romanov/

Prince Alexis Romanoff, who does not use the title Prince and is known as Alex, was born on April 27, 1953, in San Francisco, California. He is the only child of Prince Andrew Romanoff and his first wife Elena Konstantinovna Dourneva (1927 – 1992), who divorced in 1959. Alex’s father dropped his royal style and title when he came to the United States in 1949, calling himself Andrew Romanoff. Alex’s paternal grandparents were Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia and his first wife Duchess Elisabetta Sasso-Ruffo Di Sant Antimo. His maternal grandparents were Russian émigrés Konstantin Afanasievich Dournev and Felixa Stanislavna Zapalski. Alex is the great-grandchild of Grand Duchess Xenia of Russia (the daughter of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and Princess Dagmar of Denmark, known as Maria Feodorovna after her marriage) and Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia (the grandson of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia).

Alex has two half-brothers from his father’s second marriage to Kathleen Norris (1935 – 1967) who died from pneumonia.

  • Prince Peter Romanoff (born 1961), married Barbara Anne Jurgens, no children, Peter is the heir to his half-brother’s claim to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family
  • Prince Andrew Romanoff (born 1963), married Elizabeth Flores, had one daughter, Andrew is second in the line of succession to the claim to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family

Alex in his younger years; Credit – Facebook: Europe Royal Family

After his parents’ divorce, Alex lived with his mother. He attended Saint Mary’s College High School in Berkeley, California, and then attended the University of California, Berkeley. On September 19, 1987, in Oakland, California, Alex married Zoetta “Zoe” Leisy (born 1956) but the couple have no children. Since 2002, Alex has owned two businesses in Oakland California, where he and his wife Zoe also live: The Romanoff Agency, which provides bookkeeping and finance services to companies and individuals, and A to Z Printing which provides printing services to local businesses.

Alex has been a member of the Romanov Family Association since 1981 and has served as a committee member. His aunt Princess Olga Romanoff has been president of the Romanov Family Association since 2017. On July 17, 1998, together with other members of the Romanov family, Alex attended the reburial of the remains of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, his wife and three daughters, and their servants at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia. In September 2006, Alex attended all the events related to the transfer of the remains of his great-great-grandmother Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, born Princess Dagmar of Denmark from Roskilde Cathedral in Roskilde, Denmark to the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia where she was interred next to her husband.

Alex’s father Andrew Romanoff, born Prince Andrew Romanov, died on November 28, 2021, two months short of his 99th birthday at an assisted living center in San Anselmo, California after a long illness. Upon his father’s death, Alex inherited his claim to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family. All descendants of the Russian Imperial House, except for rival claimant Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and her son Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, recognized Alex’s claim to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family. Since Alex has no children, the heir to his claims is his half-brother Prince Peter Romanoff.

The headship of the House of Romanov has been contested since the death of the last undisputed male dynast Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia in 1992. Upon his death, competing claims over the headship of the House of Romanov emerged between Prince Nicholas Romanov and Grand Duke Vladimir’s daughter Maria Vladimirovna. Prince Nicholas’ claim was based on a 1911 Ukase issued by Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia that the equal marriage rule applied only to Grand Dukes (the sons and grandsons of an emperor) and that princes (the great-grandsons onward of an emperor) could marry women of “good standing” for their marriage to be dynastic and therefore transmit succession and dynastic rights to their children, and that women, namely Maria Vladimirovna, could succeed only on the total extinction of the male line. The Romanov Family Association recognized Prince Nicholas Romanov as the senior male dynastic representative and head of the family on December 31, 1992, in Paris, France and this was symbolically re-confirmed on Russian soil after the state burial of Emperor Nicholas II and his family in 1998. The Romanov Family Association further stated that they consider the marriage of Maria Vladimirovna’s parents to be unequal. (See Maria Vladimirovna’s article for more information.)

Alex and his predecessors Prince Nicholas Romanov, Prince Dmitri Romanov, and Prince Andrew Romanoff have not acted for the restoration of the monarchy or engaged in dynastic activities such as the distribution of Russian imperial titles and orders. Maria Vladimirovna claims the status of de jure Empress of All Russia, styles herself as Grand Duchess and her son as Grand Duke and Tsarevich, the title of the heir apparent, and actively distributes the Russian imperial orders, all of which have been condemned by the Romanov Family Association.

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Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Andrew Romanoff, born Prince Andrew Romanov, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/andrew-romanoff-born-prince-andrew-romanov/ (Accessed: 19 August 2023).
  • Royalpedia. (2023). Alexis Andreievich, Prince of Russia. [online] Available at: https://royalty.miraheze.org/wiki/Alexis_Andreievich,_Prince_of_Russia [Accessed 19 Aug. 2023].
  • Massie, Robert K. (1995) The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. New York: Random House
  • Романов, Алексей Андреевич (великий князь) (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2,_%D0%90%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%B9_%D0%90%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87_(%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%BA%D0%BD%D1%8F%D0%B7%D1%8C) (Accessed: 19 August 2023).
  • The Romanov Family Association. Available at: http://www.romanovfamily.org/index.html (Accessed: 19 August 2023)