FOR THE TEN OR SO YEARS of her publicly acknowledged marriage to Thomas, Joan, like most other medieval wives, left little mark in the surviving records. She no longer attracted the interest of curious and prurient chroniclers, and was doubtless relieved that her marital status ceased to be a hot topic for widespread gossip and innuendo. She became the dutiful wife. Their eldest child, Thomas, was born in 1350 or soon after – within a year or so of the couple being reunited in matrimony. There was one other son, John, and two daughters, Joan and Maud.

It is not clear whether the couple lived on one of the manors in which Thomas had a life interest– Broughton (Buckinghamshire) or Yoxall (Staffordshire). Perhaps Joan was for a while unwelcome at court because of the scandal she had caused, and lived a retired life in the country. However, the Black Prince stood godfather to her firstborn son, and possibly to her second. In 1353 a gift from the Prince of two expensive silver basins to a son of Sir Thomas was recorded – perhaps a gift to the younger son, John. The links which Thomas maintained and cultivated with leading nobles and with some of the Prince's companions may have been social in character, as well as concerned with business and war.

One bleak prospect for Joan's marriage may have been plain to her from the start: that her husband was likely to be abroad a good deal pursuing his military and administrative career. That, rather than adjusting to the bucolic pleasures of a country gentleman's life, may have accorded with his martial temperament, a restless campaigning mindset and talents for governing. However, Joan may have approved strongly of his choice to pursue a career in royal service overseas, for he needed to go on making hazardous farewells to her in order to enhance his honour and profit, and to maintain and embellish a lifestyle appropriate to her high birth. It does not seem probable that Joan accompanied him to France, considering the disturbed state of the provinces where he operated. Even after fortune smiled, and he gained control of a good deal of inherited property in her name, he presumably devoted much of its profits to financing his career.