the marriage was to be childless. concerns was raised that her difficulty to conceive was due to her weight, and during the course of her first years of marriage, she was subjected to a number of fertility treatments, among those being a diet that caused her to loose a great deal of weight. in 1779, there was a sign of pregnancy that proved to be false, and in 1783, after eight years of attempts to have issue, clothilde asked charles emanuel to end sexual relations and live in chastity as "uti frater et soror", a request he willingly agreed to.