Their first child, Cornelia, was born about the year 1537.

Their second, Torquato, saw the light in March 1544 at Sorrento, where his father had been living some months previously and working at his poem, the _Amadigi_.
At the time of Torquato's birth Bernardo was away from home, in Lombardy, France, and Flanders, traveling on missions from his Prince.
However, he returned to Sorrento for a short while in 1545, and then again was forced to leave his family.

Married at the mature age of forty-three, Bernardo was affectionately attached to his young wife, and proud of his children.

But the exigencies of a courtier's life debarred him from enjoying the domestic happiness for which his sober and gentle nature would have fitted him.

In 1547 the events happened which ruined him for life, separated him for ever from Porzia, drove him into indigent exile, and marred the prospects of his children.