During the first few months of their marriage, the couple appeared devoted to each other, but the duke went back to the life of "libertinage" he had led before his marriage. During the summer of 1772, a few months after his wife had given birth to a stillborn daughter, Philippe began a secret relationship with one of her ladies-in-waiting, Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de St-Albin, Countess of Genlis. Stephanie was the niece of Madame de Montesson his fathers second wife.