According to Suetonius, Pompeius was stabbed to death a few years later (AD 46/47) in his own bed, alongside a favored boy.

Cassius Dio states that Antonia's stepmother Empress Valeria Messalina ordered his execution out of fear that Pompeius might become a rival to her son Britannicus.

The death of Pompeius left Antonia free to marry Messalina's half-brother Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix.

In 65, Tacitus records the rumour that Gaius Calpurnius Piso intended to marry Antonia, as an element of his conspiracy against Nero.

In the story, she reveals that her first marriage with Gnaeus Pompey was never properly consummated in the two years they lived together; instead, he forced her to take part in unnatural sexual practices.