Olga Lysova was a strange choice of wife, not least because when Abramovich met her she already had two-year-old Nastya from a brief affair with a touring actor.
When Abramovich, then 20, spotted Olga, 23-year-old daughter of a high-ranking government diplomat, across a crowded restaurant in Ukhta in northern Russia`s Komi Republic in the summer of 1987, he displayed both the shy and single-minded aspects which made up his personality.
Afraid Olga would reject him, he sent a friend over to ask the geology student to dance. Olga accepted. "I thought he was very handsome,` she says. `He was tall and slim, with piercing blue eyes, and immaculately dressed in a suit."
"He seemed very grown-up and mature for his age. I told him I had a daughter and he said it wasn`t a problem, that he loved children. He was the perfect gentleman."
In fact, despite the disapproval of his friends and family, Abramovich moved with astonishing speed. Eight weeks after his first meeting with Olga, he asked her to live with him. When she refused, he said: "OK, let`s make it official. Will you marry me?"
"I thought he was joking and told him I`d think about it," recalls Olga. But a `maybe` was not the answer Roman was looking for.
Two days later, wearing a suit and clutching a bouquet of red roses in one hand and a bottle of `Sovetskoye` champagne in the other, he went straight to Olga`s mother and asked for her daughter`s hand in marriage. Both mother and daughter were immediately impressed.
"I said Yes," recalls Olga. "I thought, `Here is a man who makes up his mind and then lets nothing stop him`."
Abramovich`s own family were not quite so pleased by the match.
Olga says: `His family didn`t approve because I had a child - but he just told them to get lost. He wanted me and that was it. If he wants you, he gets you.
"But that also applies to divorce. He knows when he wants to get rid of women, too."
Before the wedding, Olga asked him if she should take his name when they married.
She remembers his words: "Darling, it`s entirely your choice." But Abramovich paused for a second before adding: "Of course, if you don`t, I won`t marry you."
Needless to say, he got his own way and they married in Moscow in December 1987. A 2,000-rouble wedding present from her parents (about £1,000) was invested by Abramovich in black market goods such as perfume, deodorants, tights and toothpaste to sell on.
Abramovich soon doubled, then tripled, the investment, his confidence growing with each business success. "I think he enjoyed the thrill of it," says Olga. "When he returned from trips selling the goods, he was flushed with joy.
"He loved to celebrate his success and he would bring presents or something nice to eat. Once, he came with a bag full of bananas. Roman always shared his success with us. It was a very happy time."
In 1988, as Perestroika opened up opportunities for entrepreneurs in the Soviet Union, he and Olga set up a company making dolls. "It brought success almost immediately," says Olga, "but I don`t think Roman ever imagined that he would become as rich as he is now."
Abramovich`s business interests began to take their toll on their marriage. "He would get up early and go to work," says Olga, "and he wouldn`t come back until midnight. He was a workaholic. The days when we used to have time to sit and talk were long gone."
If she suspected they were growing apart, she could not have foreseen the betrayal which was to come. Incredibly, Abramovich managed to persuade Olga that they should divorce so they could emigrate to Canada together.
"The immigration laws then made it easier for him to go there if he wasn`t married," explains Olga. "The plan was that he would go there, get citizenship and then come back for us."
She agreed to the divorce, which went ahead in April 1989. "We went to the register office and signed the papers on absolutely good terms, but the future in Canada never happened."
Instead, in August 1989, after a short break to see her family in northern Russia, Olga recalls returning home to her husband. Calmly and simply, he told her: "I don`t want our relationship to go on any more."
She adds: "There was no warning. He just said it. I was in shock."
Olga`s tears and protests didn`t make the slightest bit of difference. "I asked him why he was doing this and if there was someone else, but he refused to answer my questions about other women.
2He just said: `There`s no point trying to discuss anything now. It`s too late. I have already decided. I just don`t want to live with you. I simply don`t want it.`
Looking back, Olga says she can see where she went wrong. "I argued with him about the hours he was working and the parties he went to alone - and he didn`t like that.
"In that sense, Irina was wiser than I was. Unlike me, she really tried to smooth all the rough edges. She always let him be the main voice in the family and did things the way he wanted. That`s why I`m so shocked it didn`t last. They`ve weathered so much together."
She stayed in touch with Abramovich and Irina by telephone for the next few years, until the birth of his second child, Arkady. "They were living in Irina`s mother`s flat," she says. "We carried on calling each other for two or three years. Irina seemed very strong and capable.
"They moved to Germany when the two children were still small and Roman commuted to and from Moscow. She was on her own with the children for long periods. After they moved, I lost track of them."
In the years that followed, Olga put her first husband to the back of her mind and moved on. She married a musician called Stefan Stefanovich and now manages his career from their split-level apartment in one of Moscow`s highrise blocks.
She still owns the flat in Tsvetnoi Boulevard which she rents out and even has the Soviet-era sofabed which she shared with Abramovich after they married.
"I have no regrets," she says. "I don`t hold a grudge against Roman. I am comfortably off and I have all that I want. Our happiest times were when we were penniless students. I sometimes think if we`d stayed like that for ever, we could have been happy. You pay a price for all that ambition and that lust for riches.
"Roman may have the world in his hands, but you can`t buy lasting love and happiness. I fear for him that he will never be happy with his lot in life. He will always want more.
"Despite his money, he needs to reassure himself that he is still strong and virile - and as so often happens, he has done this by finding a beautiful girl so much younger than his wife.
"I don`t know Dasha, but I`ve seen pictures of her. She is one of Russia`s new unbelievably rich golden kids. Irina and I were brought up in the old Soviet Union. Dasha is a different breed. I`m not surprised that Roman has lost his control over her.
"As for Dasha, I wish her luck. There are plenty of beautiful women as young as her - and younger - who will try to get him. They will be hunting him. But if she plays her cards right and doesn`t argue with him or confront him, I am sure Roman will bring her some unforgettable moments.
"He is a real man but he likes to be told he`s the boss, the only one and the most wonderful. And as long as he loves a woman, he stays with her. The only question is for how long?"