Known from birth as Mademoiselle de Bourbon, she was named after the queen, Maria Theresa of Spain (wife of King Louis XIV of France).

Marie Thérèse had a difficult relationship with her children and, as a result, lived quietly at the various Conti residences, mainly at the Château de L'Isle-Adam.

Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Dowager Duchess of Orléans and mother of the Regent Philippe d'Orléans, wrote of the widowed Marie Thérèse: This Princess is the only one of the House of Condé who is good for anything.

The Prince de Conti went to Poland to inspect his potential new kingdom, while Marie Thérèse stayed in France.

[4] Based on votes that cast by the Polish nobility, her husband was the more popular candidate, but when he arrived in Gdańsk, he found that Augustus II the Strong had taken his place on the throne, and so he returned to France.

Through her granddaughter Louise Henriette de Bourbon-Conti, Duchess d'Orléans, grandmother of Louis Philippe, King of the French, Marie Thérèse is an ancestor of several of Europe's 19th and 20th century monarchs.