Claude was born on 11 December 1943 in Larache, Morocco as the ninth child and fifth daughter of Henri, Count of Paris, Orléanist claimant to the French throne, and his wife Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza.

[1] The couple met while attending the wedding of Infante Juan Carlos of Spain and Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark in May 1962 in Athens.

[3] Present at this meeting, along with the princes Vittorio Emanuele and Amedeo, was Umberto's estranged consort, Queen Marie-José, whose objections dissuaded the king from issuing a declaration.

[3] After the duke completed his duties as a naval officer, the couple were given the Borro by Aimone's mother, a large estate in the Tuscan village of San Giustino Valdarno, near Fiesole, Italy, where they cultivated vineyards.

[3] They had issue:[5] Amedeo and Claude officially separated 20 July 1976, obtained a civil divorce 26 April 1982, and received an ecclesiastical annulment from the Roman Rota 8 January 1987.

[9] During her second marriage, Claude lived in the United States (Colebrook, Connecticut, Charleston, West Virginia and New York), in The Bahamas, and returned to Europe (Alsace and the Principality of Andorra).