As one of the most colorful figures in Federation diplomacy, the Betazoid ambassador Lwaxana Troi has led a life of both flamboyance and tragedy. Natively, she is a daughter of Betazed's Fifth House, holder of the sacred Chalice of Rixx and heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed. Lwaxana's life has been marked by a succession of romances and marriages, her first being to a good friend of fellow Betazoid diplomat Rheittan Grax; she actually bore a son with the latest, to the Tavnian Jeyal, but faked a second lover to escape the marriage and the Tavnian child-rearing custom of separation of genders.

By far it was her marriage to human Starfleet Lt. Comdr. Ian Andrew Troi in 2328 that was most rewarding and stable, with the birth of a daughter Kestra a year later and a second, Deanna, in 2336. But Kestra accidentally drowned later that year, and Lwaxana's grief drove her to delete all memory of her from her personal writings and then from her Betazed metaconscious as well. When her husband died in 2343, Lwaxana took on a wild, flirtatious lifestyle that masked her pain while increasingly annoying and isolating her daughter, whom she also over-protected. Before Ian's death, the parents had Deanna genetically bonded in the Betazoid arranged marriage process to a human boy Wyatt Miller, but a reunion among the families in 2364 found her feuding with Mrs. Miller well before the wedding was called off.

To her adult daughter's eternal embarrassment, Lwaxana has flirted and chased after Deanna's commander and one-time lover, Jean-Luc Picard and Wil Riker -- especially during her time of quadrupled sex drive known as the Phase in 2365 -- but they were only two of her failed romances. Aside from falling for a holographic bartender, some of her interests over the years included Kaelon IV scientist Dr. Timicin, a sight-unseen engagement to Minister Campio of Kostolain, security chief Odo at DS9, and another one that led her on the rebound to Jeyal. Although later affairs were piqued by mutual interest, she admitted that some were prompted by a fear of aging and loneliness.

To Lwaxana's credit, she did expose an Antedian terrorist bombing while an ambassador to the Pacifica Conference in 2365, and even helped outwit the lustful Ferengi, DaiMon Tog, who kidnapped her, Deanna and Riker in 2366. She had a sister whom she outlived, and was served much of her later lifetime by a mostly mute servant, Mr. Homn. He was unknown to Deanna, who was more familiar with his predecessor Mr. Xelo, who was dismissed for his misplaced flirtations with Lwaxana.