During the time that Smith lived with Mrs. Emery, her story caught the attention of a genuine Romanov relative, Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich Romanov (1902–1978), a nephew of Tsar Nicholas II and therefore first cousin to the real Anastasia. Prince Rostislav, who had lived in Chicago since the 1920s, was informed by his ex-wife, the former Princess Alexandra Pavlovna Galitzine (1905–2006), that Eugenia Smith was living in nearby Elmhurst. Keen to arrange a meeting, the princess invited Smith to lunch on no fewer than three occasions; in each case, however, the claimant declined on the grounds that she was too nervous.