The marriage started off with promise with the birth of a child, Frederica Charlotte but the couple soon became unhappy, due to adultery on both sides as well as her hot temper.

Elisabeth Christine was described as handsome in appearance and graceful in manner, and as a good dancer; other, more ambiguous epithets were also used: she was lively, high-spirited and impetuous in disposition, and she was engaging and outgoing in her interaction with everybody.

[1] King Frederick had hoped that the marriage would quickly produce an heir, and was delighted when Elisabeth Christine became pregnant not long after the wedding.

Count Ernst Ahasverus Heinrich von Lehndorff (1727-1811), Chamberlain at the royal court of Prussia, noted in his diary: "I'm convinced she would have preferred 3,000 thalers in cash".

On his part, Frederick William confirmed to the norms of his day, and considered that his wife should make no fuss if he indulged in casual sex with sundry dancers and actresses, because they could never take her place, and all he wanted from them was a night of revelry.

In the Vertraute Briefe, the marital relationship of Elisabeth Christine is described as follows: "Frederic William was now twenty-one years of age; his disposition was good, but his capacity was slender; he resembled the Brunswicks in person, being six feet two in height, and proportionally stout.

His young wife resented this conduct in the highest degree; wounded alike in her wifehood and her womanhood, she not only separated herself from the crown Prince, and haughtily refused him admission to her presence, but, alas!

However, as was noted by Friedrich Wilhelm von Thulemeyer,[3] the Crown Princess became pregnant by her lover, a musician called Pietro.

[2] King Frederick was initially unwilling to agree to a divorce, as his sympathy was greater for Elisabeth Christine than for Frederick William, but the Crown Prince insisted in his demand for a divorce, and urged in agreement with the King the annulment of his marriage on grounds to avoid claims of illegitimate offspring on the Prussian throne, to which the Brunswick court agreed.

In a letter wrote to his sister (and Elisabeth Christine's mother) Philippine Charlotte, the King summarized all the events: The husband, young and immoral, practiced a debauched life daily; the princess his wife, who was in the prime of her beauty, found herself grossly insulted by the low regard that her own charm had over him.

Soon she found herself in such debauchery that hardly inferior to those of her husband; the disaster broke out and became public.Elisabeth Christine was firstly banished to Küstrin Fortress and later placed under house arrest as a Prisoner of state in the Ducal Castle of Stettin under the care of her cousin, Duke Augustus William of Brunswick-Bevern.

Being of an extrovert nature, she suffered from her isolation: reportedly, she sometimes placed all the chairs in a long row in her apartments, and danced "Anglaises" between them to ease her boredom.

After the death of Frederick the Great in 1786, she received a visit from her former spouse, and during his reign, her conditions improved: she was given permission to entertain visitors, and to walk, and ride on horseback in the areas of the town.

[1] An incident is known, when she slapped an officer who insisted upon opening a New Year's gift from her mother: when he sent a complaint to the king, he answered "no man could ever be insulted by a blow from the hand of so fair a lady.