Her two older half brothers, Henri and Emmanuel Maurice were successively dukes of Elbeuf and she was known as Mademoiselle d'Elbeuf.

Ferdinando's first wife and cousin, Anna Isabella Gonzaga, died in August 1703, leaving him childless.

Nevertheless, Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat sought Suzanne Henriette's hand in pursuit of a dynastic alliance with another reigning ducal house under French influence.

Later she was involved in a lawsuit between Leopold, Duke of Lorraine and Anne of Bavaria, Princess de Condé, over inheritance of the Guise fortune.

[1] Saint-Simon observed that she died in the flower of her youth after a long illness, also noting that, having been considered a beauty, her "bizarre" marriage had been the cause of a sad life.