Giovanna was born in Rome, the third daughter and the fourth of five children of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Queen Elena, former Princess of Montenegro.

[citation needed] In the years prior to World War II, Tsaritsa Ioanna became heavily involved in charities, including the financing of a children's hospital.

[citation needed] Ioanna's son, Simeon, became the new tsar and a regency was established, led by his uncle Prince Kyril, who was considered more pliable by the Germans.

[1] After initially fleeing to Alexandria in the Kingdom of Egypt, to join her father, King Victor Emmanuel III, Giovanna and her son Simeon II moved on to Madrid.

In 1962 Simeon II married and Queen Giovanna moved to Estoril, on the Portuguese Riviera, where she lived for the rest of her life, apart from a brief return to Bulgaria in 1993, when she visited the site of Boris's grave and was present at the reburial of his heart.