As the middle child of the family, Maria felt insecure about her role and worried that she wasn't as loved as her siblings were. She apparently worried that her mother preferred Anastasia to her, as Alexandra sent her a note “I have no secrets with Anastasia, I do not like secrets." Alexandra sent Maria another note: "Sweet child, you must promise me never again to think that nobody loves you. How did such an extraordinary idea get into your little head? Get it quickly out again.” Feeling excluded by her older sisters, Maria tried to befriend her cousin Princess Irina Alexandrovna, but Alexandra warned her that this would only make her sisters "imagine... that you do not want to be with them."