The family spent half of the year at Fischbach (today Karpniki) Castle in Silesia, where they loved to hike in the Giant Mountains.

In her youth, Marie was seriously considered as a wife for Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, until her engagement to Maximilian was announced.

A specific emphasis of her "great social engagement" was a reactivation of the Bavarian Women's Association, which took place on 18 December 1869 with the aid of her son, Ludwig II.

She spent her summer holidays at Schloss Hohenschwangau near Füssen, a castle her husband had redecorated in Gothic Revival style, and at her country estate in Elbigenalp in the Lechtal Alps.

She outlived her elder son, Ludwig II, by nearly three years; his unusual death occurring on 13 June 1886.