She was by birth a member of the boyar upper-class: her father, Lieutenant Colonel Theodor Pallady (1847/1853–1916), an aristocrat from the eastern region (and former state) of Moldavia, had earned distinction in the Romanian Land Forces; her mother, also named Alexandrina (1845/1848–1881), was a Kretzulescu boyaress from Wallachia, and the heiress of a large estate. Through Pallady's mother, Alexandrina descended from another boyar house, the Ghicas, who owned the manor in Ciocănești. The marriage produced four children in all, but Alexandrina was the only one to survive infancy. From an affair with a Maria Stamatiade, Theodor Pallady had a son, the future Symbolist poet-publicist Alexandru Teodor "Al. T." Stamatiad (born 1885). Alexandrina's paternal family also produced other intellectual figures of importance: Theodor Iancu Pallady, the modernist painter, and Lucia Sturdza-Bulandra, the actress, were nephews of Lt. Col. Pallady, and as such cousins of Alexandrina and Al. T. Stamatiad. Upon her mother's death, the five-year-old Alexandrina was raised by her aunt, Eliza Ghica, and formally adopted by Eliza's husband, Vladimir M. Ghica. With Ghica money, she was able to pursue studies abroad, in France. In or around 1899, after Eliza Ghica's death, Alexandrina Pallady-Ghica was living in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, where she married the aspiring politician Grigore Gheorghe Cantacuzino—known locally as "Griguță Cantacuzino" or, mockingly, as "Prensul" ("Princeling"). Her full name subsequently became "Alexandrina Grigore Cantacuzino" (sometimes shortened as "Alexandrina Gr. Cantacuzino"), with the inclusion of her husband's name as a patronymic. The marriage propelled Cantacuzino into the high society, also bringing her into contact with the Conservative Party elite. The Cantacuzino family, of Phanariote origins, had been highly influential in the political affairs of Moldavia and Wallachia. Her father-in-law was the magistrate, Conservative policymaker and former Premier Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino (1833–1913).