Daria "Dasha" Zhukova was born in 1982 in Moscow, Russia. Her father, Alexander, made millions of dollars in oil in the 1990s (but went to jail for six months for selling firearms).

After attending grammar school, Daria Zhukova graduated with honors from California`s UC-Santa Barbara, and went on to study homeopathy at the London College of Naturopathic Medicine. Her father was also living in England at the time, and Daria Zhukova became quite the public socialite throughout 2005. In-between modeling, for a short time, Daria Zhukova dated tennis player Marat Safin.
daria zhukova dates roman abramovich
In 2006, the News of the World reported that oil billionaire and owner of the Chelsea Football Club, Roman Abramovich, and his second wife, Irina, were filing for divorce after pictures were published of the business tycoon with Daria Zhukova. Irina gave Roman an ultimatum to choose between his family (the couple had five children together) and his mistress. He chose Daria. A divorce ensued in which Irina was granted a $300 million settlement. For the rest of the year and much of 2007, they continued to keep their relationship under wraps, only appearing together at sports matches.

In January 2008, Daria Zhukova launched a clothing line that was featured in Vogue magazine. The business was started in collaboration with her friend Christina Tang and they called their line Kova&T. She also helped open The Garage, an art gallery in Moscow.