[2] Her parents, married since 1930, were unhappy together, as her mother confessed in an interview many years later (On n'a jamais été heureux, "We were never happy")[citation needed], and separated after the Italian monarchy was abolished following the 1946 referendum.

Exiled after the fall of the monarchy, the family gathered briefly in Portugal, whence she, her sisters and brother soon returned with their mother to Switzerland, while their father remained in the Portuguese Riviera.

[2] After her father's death, and with her brother's approval, she launched the King Umberto II Foundation in Lausanne, dedicated to preserving the history and legacy of the House of Savoy.

In an editorial about the rumors surrounding the marriage of "a Muslim sovereign and a Catholic princess", the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, wrote that the match constituted "a grave danger.

"[3] She married Robert Zellinger de Balkany (4 August 1931 in Iclod, Romania – 19 September 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland) on 12 February 1969 in Sainte-Mesme.