Who Is the Woman With the Hello Kitty Handbag Photographed With Nicușor Dan? She Was Mistaken for a Presidential Adviser

A photograph of prosecutor Ioana Sadovec carrying a Hello Kitty handbag helped fuel a viral mistake: social media users identified her as an adviser to Romanian President Nicușor Dan. The claim is false. Sadovec was confused with Martina Orlea, the presidential adviser for national security.

Sadovec works as a prosecutor at the Giurgiu District Court Prosecutor’s Office, a position she has held since 2016. Juridice.ro reported that she served at the Aiud District Court Prosecutor’s Office in 2025 and 2026, after working as a judicial auditor at Romania’s National Institute of Magistracy from 2023 to 2025. Before entering the magistracy, she worked as a lawyer at SĂVESCU & ASOCIAȚII between 2019 and 2023.

Orlea was appointed as an adviser at Cotroceni in May 2026. The Presidential Administration describes her as a digital communications expert who spent five years working on political communication and disinformation-countering campaigns in more than 20 countries.

Over the past three years, Orlea worked for London communications agency Electica, where she developed Shift Campaigns, a project focused on combating disinformation. At the agency, she led one of the largest disinformation-response projects for Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. She also worked with NATO StratCom on a project measuring the impact of Russian narratives in Ukraine.

Her political work has included digital campaigns for UK Labour, Moldova’s PAS and Germany’s SPD. Orlea studied international economic relations and earned a master’s degree at Sciences Po in Paris. She also launched “Toward City Hall,” described as the first non-political training project for independent candidates in Romania’s 2028 local elections.