 She tried to sustain her episodic relationship with Hayes after her divorce and his return to America, but declined his offer to legally adopt and raise their biracial daughter, who would become Igor and Grichka's mother.In 1927 the countess retired to the Château de Saint-Lary near Auch with her daughter.During the World War II occupation of France by the Nazis, she served the occupiers as a translator while also secretly sheltering Jews on the castle grounds.