Her mother was disinherited by her father because her parents did not approve of living with a man without being married, and Bengel lived in humble conditions in Copacabana. At the age of 10, her parents separated, and because her mother could not support her financially, Bengel lived with her father and paternal grandparents in Germany. Being a rebellious young woman, she was interned in a college of nuns, and then expelled, and she abandoned her studies, returning to live in Brazil with her mother.