On 22 April 1850, she married, in Dresden Cathedral, Prince Ferdinand, 1st Duke of Genoa, second son of King Charles Albert of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of Austria and Tuscany.

[1] The couple had two children: On 10 February 1855 her husband died in Turin, leaving Elizabeth a widow at the age of 25.

Before her second year of widowhood had ended, she remarried on 4 October 1856 with her chamberlain Niccolò Bernoud, Marchese di Rapallo.

This act so infuriated her brother-in-law Victor Emmanuel II of Italy that he ordered her into virtual exile and disallowed her from seeing her two children.

Court gossip had often hinted that their marriage was unhappy, and his suicide added fuel to these stories.