Life at her father's was no better, her stepmother treated her just as poorly as her aunt did. Her eldest brother went to Germany to stay with relatives by the name of Campinados. At the age of 13, Anne-Josèphe and her younger brother went to Xhoris to stay with some of their father's relatives. While in Xhoris, she constantly was snubbed and overworked to the point where she could not take it any longer. As a result, she went back to her aunt in Liège, but found that she was still mistreated. After realizing the need to start her own life, she learned to herd cows in Sougné, a province in Limburg. A year later, she went back to Liège to work as a seamstress, only to face the same discontent with her life as before. She proceeded to seek refuge with a different aunt by the name of Clamend who lived in Xhoris. Before long, a woman asked Anne-Josèphe to come to Antwerp with her to care for her daughter. The woman abandoned her at the inn they were staying at after a few weeks. Luckily for Anne-Josèphe, a woman by the name of Madame Colbert saw something within her and took her in as the governess to her children. Anne-Josèphe was sixteen when she started living with Madame Colbert; her life consisted of teaching Madame Colbert's children and studying operatic singing in several European capitals. They ended up at Madame Colbert's house in London where eventually a rich Englishman set his eyes on Anne-Josèphe. One night when Madame Colbert was out, the Englishman entered the home begging for Anne-Josèphe to elope with him. According to her account after she declined, she was abducted and taken by force. When he became of age and inherited his fortune, the unmarried couple went to Paris to live their lives. She quickly caught onto his lavish ways and tried to work with him, but in 1787 he returned to England leaving her in Paris with 200,000 livres.