Anne Henriette and her older twin sister Princess Louise Élisabeth were born at the Palace of Versailles on 14 August 1727, to Louis XV of France and Queen Maria Leszczyńska.

The eldest children of Louis XV, the twins Élisabeth and Henriette, Marie-Louise, Adélaïde and their brother, the Dauphin of France, were raised in Versailles under the supervision of the Governess of the Children of France, Marie Isabelle de Rohan, duchesse de Tallard, while their younger siblings, Victoire, Sophie, Thérèse and Louise, were sent to be raised at Fontevraud Abbey in June 1738.

[3] The Duke of Luynes commented several times in his memoirs that her mother Queen Marie Leszczyńska was also close to her, and that she frequently consoled her daughter whenever she was ill and when her visiting married twin sister Elisabeth had to depart again for Parma in 1749.

[5] Henriette reportedly fell mutually in love with her cousin, Louis Philippe, heir to the House of Orléans, and wished to marry him.

Henriette was one of her most fervent champions in this issue; the powerful Noailles and Maurepas allied with the Queen to achieve the same, and the French ambassador at Madrid, Monseigneur Vauréal, bishop of Rennes.

With her brother, the Dauphin Louis, and her sister, Madame Adélaïde, she called the powerful mistress Maman Putain ("Mother Whore").

[7] When Louise Élisabeth returned from Parma for a year-long visit to Versailles in 1748, she and Madame de Pompadour became close friends, which led to a temporary estrangement between the sisters.

Louis was initially hostile toward his new wife, even more so when his only child with the Spanish Infanta died, but she eventually managed to win his affection with the help of advice from Henriette.

In February of that year, she had felt somewhat unwell and tired, but when the King asked her to accompany him on a sledge ride, she gave no signs of her discomfort, and accepted the invitation anyway.