Ukraine's Olena Zelenska Reunites with Jill Biden and Kate Middleton

King Charles's coronation is bringing together leaders from around the world, including Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska.

Last year, when U.S. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine to meet with Zelenska, it was her first public appearance since the Russian invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's wife had been in hiding with their two children since the start of the war.

"First of all, I would like to thank you for a very courageous act," Zelenska said to Biden during her visit. "Because we understand what it takes for the U.S. first lady to come here during a war when the military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day even today."

Zelenska's public appearance was extremely notable—she's widely regarded a top target of Russian forces. Since, however, she has been making more visible appearances—including this weekend for the coronation. Here, everything you need to know about the Ukrainian first lady.

Olena was born in Kryvyi Rih, Soviet Ukraine.

Born Olena Kiyashko, she grew up in the central Ukrainian city where Volodymyr Zelensky was born and raised. The two met in high school in Kryvyi Rih, at Kryvyi Rih Gymnasium №95. They then attended college together, at Kryvyi Rih Economic Institute, where she studied architecture and he studied law.

"We were teenagers in the last days of the Soviet Union," she recounted. "The world started to open up for us."

Olena and Volodymyr started dating in 1995.

The two dated for eight years before marrying in September 2003. After marrying, they moved from Kyrvyi Rih to Kyiv. They have two children: Oleksandra (nicknamed Sasha), born in July 2004, and Kyrylo, born January 2013.

Once in Kyiv, they founded production company Studio Kvartal 95, where Olena worked as a script writer.

"I always knew that he was and would be a reliable support for me. Then he became a wonderful father and support for our family. And now he has shown the same traits," Olena told CNN about her husband in 2022. "He has not changed. It’s just that more people saw it through my eyes."

She learned from social media that her husband was running for Prime Minister.

In a profile in Vogue Ukraine, Olena spoke about how she was not happy her husband decided to run for president, saying, "I was not too happy when I realized that those were the plans. I realized how everything would change, and what difficulties we would have to face."

She found out about his candidacy from social media—she said he "forgot" to tell her, but they had been discussing it for a long time. Zelenska hadn't wanted him to run for office.

"I respected his choice and I understood that this was an important step for him to make. At the same time I felt that my life and the life of my family would change quite radically. The change would be long-lasting and quite complex," she said. "I knew there was going to be a lot of work for me, and I was right."

Her husband took office in 2019, and she described herself as a "non-public person."

"I am a non-public person. But the new realities require their own rules, and I'm trying to comply with them," Olena told Vogue Ukraine. "I can't say that publicity or communication with the press is stressful for me. But I prefer staying backstage. My husband is always on the forefront, while I feel more comfortable in the shade. I am not the life of the party, I do not like to tell jokes. It's not in my character. But I found reasons for myself in favour of publicity. One of them is the opportunity to attract people's attention to important social issues. At the same time, this does not concern the publicity of my children: I have not posted their photos on social networks before, and now I will not either."

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Olena went into hiding with her children.

Her husband lives in the President's office, and she cannot stay with him due to the danger.

"The president’s office had become a military facility and my children and I were forbidden to stay there. We were ordered to move to a safe place—if, in Ukraine, it is possible to find a safe place now… Since then, we have been communicating with Volodymyr only by phone," she told Vogue.

Zelensky said in an address in February, "According to the information we have, the enemy has marked me as target No. 1, my family as target No. 2. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state." Since, Olena and her children have been in an undisclosed location in Ukraine.

"These have been the most horrible months of my life, and the lives of every Ukrainian," she told Vogue. "Frankly I don’t think anyone is aware of how we have managed emotionally."

Olena has made appearances since the start of the war.

Since the First Lady meet with Jill Biden in May, Olena Zelenska has taken on a higher profile, and has started giving interviews, and stepped out more in the public eye. In May, she was pictured for the first time since the war began alongside her husband, President Zelensky. The couple attend the funeral ceremony of Ukrainian first president Leonid Kravchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine.

In July, she traveled to the United States at the invitation of Dr. Jill Biden, not traveling as an official representative of the Ukrainian government.

"I am here at the invitation of First Lady Jill Biden. She visited Ukraine in May to personally see and communicate with those who lost their homes and loved ones due to the war. Now it’s my turn to speak in the United States about Ukrainian needs in our resistance and fight against the aggressor," she said.

During her first day in D.C., Zelenska met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. "I was glad to meet our great friend, Mrs. Samantha, especially in the context of the fact that her agency, USAID, is one of the main partners of Ukraine in the matter of supporting people," Ukraine's First Lady said.

The next day, she reunited with Dr. Biden at the White House in Washington, D.C. President Joe Biden presented her with a large bouquet of sunflowers, a symbol of Ukrainian solidarity.

During her last day, she addressed members of Congress, telling them, "We want every father and every mother to be able to tell their child go to sleep peacefully, there will be no more airstrikes, no more missile strikes. Is this too much to wish for?"

In May 2023, she went to London for King Charles's coronation.

During the reception at Buckingham Palace the night before, she reunited with the Princess of Wales and Dr. Biden.

Volodymyr spoke proudly of his wife.

"She is my love. But she is my greatest friend," the Ukrainian president told Vogue. "Olena really is my best friend. She is also a patriot and she deeply loves Ukraine. It’s true. And she is an excellent mother."

You Might Also Like

• 12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion

• 13 Beauty Tools to Up Your At-Home Facial Game