Efforts by newspapers to publish pictures of her on her deathbed led to the introduction of privacy rights into French law.

Her father, Jacob Jacques Félix, was a peddler, and her mother, Esther Thérèse Hayer, was a Bohemian dealer in second-hand clothes.

She took elocution and singing lessons, eventually studying under the instruction of the musician Alexandre-Étienne Choron and Saint-Aulaire.

[citation needed] During this time, she began a liaison with Louis Véron, the former director of the Paris Opera, which became the subject of much gossip.

Her acting style was characterized by clear diction and economy of gesture; she evoked a high demand for classical tragedy to remain on the stage.

[9] Upon her deathbed, she wrote many farewell letters to her sons, family members, lovers, colleagues and theatre connections at Comédie-Française.

She is buried in a mausoleum in the Jewish part of Père Lachaise Cemetery and Avenue Rachel [fr] in Paris was named after her.