Her relationship with her only son was always strained. This tension has been blamed on her ambition to keep power to herself. Marie Jeanne Baptiste spent most of her time working on state business, which she enjoyed, and had little time for her only child. She kept him under close scrutiny in order to make sure he would not try to assume power from her. Despite the bad relationship with her son, she openly kept lovers at court. At the age of thirty three, she was in a relationship with the Count of Saint Maurice, some ten years her junior. Marie Jeanne Baptiste and Saint Maurice's relationship lasted some four years before his whole family left in disgrace due to his father failing on a string of diplomatic relations.