[1] His mother, Isabella d´Este,[2] was the daughter of Francesco I d'Este, Duke of Modena and of Maria Caterina Farnese.

Odoardo's father had been previously married to Princess Margaret Yolande of Savoy, first cousin of Louis XIV, but that marriage had not produced any surviving children (only two stillborn infants).

Odoardo Farnese married Countess Palatine Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg by proxy on 3 April 1690.

Dorothea Sophia was the daughter of Philipp Wilhelm, Elector Palatine and Elisabeth Amalie von Hesse-Darmstadt.

His young widow, Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg, then married Odoardo's half-brother Francesco Farnese on 8 December 1695.