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Everywhere you turn, you’ll probably see Martha Stewart right there. From podcasts to recipes in your mom group chat, Stewart has become one of the most recognized faces in the United States, especially in the food world.
Born Aug. 3, 1941, Stewart quickly rose to the top after being discovered in the 1970s for her charm and outstanding cooking skills. Since then, she’s become a respected retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality with a career spanning over 40 years. The legendary chef’s impact is unmistakable, influencing generations of new chefs and bakers to find their love for cooking.
In a previous interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she reflected on her journey to becoming America’s first female self-made billionaire. Before getting into cooking and housekeeping, she worked as a model and a stockbroker for Wall Street. “I was living two very distinctly different lives. And the life of the homemaker was more interesting to me than the life on Wall Street.”
Despite being one of the biggest names of our time, there’s so much that people don’t know about the mogul. So for Stewart’s newest accomplishment being the eldest superstar on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition (we know, our jaws dropped too!!), let’s take a look back at her incredible life and career in photos below.
A version of this article was originally published on Aug 2022.
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Born Into a Working Family
Image Credit: Susan Wood/Getty Images. Born Aug. 3, 1941, in Jersey City, New Jersey, to her parents, Edward and Martha Kostyra, Martha Kostyra is the second of six children. In a previous interview with Shop the Stars with Jill Martin, she reflected on her childhood, saying, “I was one of six kids and two working parents. We were taught to work, we were encouraged to pay our own way, and we all did.”
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Modelling & Babysitting Before College
Image Credit: Susuan Wood/Getty Images. Before she hit college, she was already a babysitter to multiple families of the New York Yankees and as a model. At age 15, she started modeling, funding her scholarship money for Barnard College of Columbia University, and working for clients like Chanel, per EOnline.
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Two Important Women Gave Her a Love for Cooking
Image Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images. Martha Stewart’s mother and namesake was actually the one to teach her her love of cooking and sewing, with her father teaching her his passion for gardening. However, Martha Stewart told Maclean’s that her “original teacher” was Julia Child. “I got to meet her several times and work with her. She got me interested in haute cuisine. I cooked every single recipe in her two big volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”
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Barnard Graduate & Happily Married
Image Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images. She was originally set to study chemistry at Barnard College but switched multiple times before ending up in architectural history. However, she left college for a bit of time to marry her husband, Andrew Stewart in July 1961. She returned a year later to graduate with degrees in history and architectural history.
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Martha Is a Huge Animal Lover
Image Credit: Arthur Schatz/Getty Images. Martha Stewart is an avid animal lover. Per her website, her pets include champion show Chow Chow dogs, French Bulldogs, Himalayan cats, a Fell Pony named Ben Chunch, Friesian horses, donkeys, and peacocks.
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Her First Catering Company
Image Credit: George Rose/Getty Images. Before becoming an empire, Martha Stewart briefly worked as a stockbroker. After nine years, she started a catering business with her friend Norma Collier. While the business took off quite quickly, Collier and Stewart later butted heads, with Stewart buying Collier out of the company, per Britannica.
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It All Started With a Party
Image Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images. Martha Stewart’s first cookbook deal came from attending a release party. Stewart’s husband Andrew set up a book release party for a client and hired his wife as the caterer. Because of this, she met Alan Mirken, who was the head of Crown Publishing Group, and he contacted her about publishing her first cookbook, per Investopedia. Her first cookbook called Entertaining then came out in 1982, which was ghostwritten by Elizabeth Hawes.
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Building a TV Empire
Image Credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images. Back in 1990, Martha Stewart worked with Time Publishing Ventures to develop her legendary magazine Martha Stewart Living, which spurred on a television program in 1993. This television show expanded twice throughout the 1990s before ending in 2004. She then had the successful show Martha from 2005 to 2012.
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Martha Stewart & Snoop Dogg’s Unlikely Friendship
Image Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic. Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg’s friendship started back in 2008, when he appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and later made the beloved show Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party. She said back in 2019 to the Today Show, “I like his laid-back energy. I like his outspokenness. I like his sense of timing.”
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A-List Friendships
Image Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images. Martha Stewart has a lot of celebrity friends, which makes sense since she’s been in the public eye for decades. Her most notable friendships (besides Snoop Dogg) are with her cousin Jimmy Kimmel, the Kardashians, Drew Barrymore, Pairs Hilton, Tiffany Haddish, and the late Ivana Trump.
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Her Incarceration in 2004
Image Credit: Katy Winn/Everett Collection. Her charges came from an incident in 2001 when she received an insider tip to sell ImClone Systems shares a day before their value plunged, later lying about the tip-off. Because of this, in 2004, Stewart was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, two counts of making false statements, and one count of obstruction of agency proceedings, per CNN Money. She spent five months in prison.
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Her Tumultuous Mother-Daughter Relationship
Image Credit: Larry Busacca/Getty Images North America. Martha Stewart was married to Andrew Stewart from 1961 to 1990, welcoming one daughter named Alexis in 1965. However, Martha and Alexis haven’t been close, with Alexis writing a mommy dearest, detailing how her home life was “hell.” She said in her book Whateverland: Learning to Live Here, “If I didn’t do something perfectly, I had to do it again. I grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head.” She added, “Martha does everything better. You can’t win!”
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Dating Isn’t Her Top Priority
Image Credit: Lexie Moreland/WWD. She dated a little bit after her divorce in 1990, most notably her brief fling with Anthony Hopkins. However, she revealed they broke up because she was unable to see him as himself, but rather his infamous character Hannibal Lecter. She also dated billionaire Charles Simonyi on and off for 15 years before splitting for good in 2008.
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Award-Winning Entertainer
Image Credit: Everett Collection. Throughout her career on television, she’s been nominated for 23 Daytime Emmys, winning nine, per IMDB. As of 2020, she’s received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, an Edison Achievement Award, has been inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, and inducted into the Licensing International Hall of Fame.
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Nearly 100 Books Published
Image Credit: Photo by: Gregorio Binuya/Everett Collection. She has released a whopping 97 books and counting, including her newest books Martha Stewart’s Organizing and Martha Stewart’s Cake Perfection.
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Building a Real Estate Empire
Image Credit: Photo By: Kristin Callahan/Everett Collection. At one point, Martha Stewart owned eight houses, including two Manhattan apartments; her Turkey Hill home in Westport, Connecticut; two houses in the Hamptons; a 153-acre farm in Bedford, New York; and the Maine estate, Skylands.
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An Exhausting Lifestyle
Image Credit: Fairchild Archive/Penske Media. She noted that she has an exhausting lifestyle, telling WebMD in 2008, “It’s an exhausting lifestyle, and I always say sleep can go. It’s not important to me right now.” She’s also reported only getting four hours of sleep a night and staying up late, watching late-night TV.
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America’s First Self-Made Female Billionaire
Image Credit: Fairchild Archive/Penske Media. When her company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia launched its initial public offering in 2000, its stock tripled. Because of this, Martha Stewart became America’s first self-made female billionaire, per the Richest.
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She Loves Being a Grandma
Image Credit: Lexie Moreland/WWD. While Martha Stewart and her daughter weren’t always on the best of terms, they grew much closer after her incarceration. Because of this, she’s grown super close with her grandchildren named Truman and Jude. Jude was born via a surrogate in 2011, with her younger brother Truman being born in 2012, per ABC.
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She’s Had a Few Near-Death Experiences
Image Credit: Chris Smith for WWD. According to a previous interview with SF Gate per her website, Martha Stewart has had quite a few near-death experiences, including being struck by lightning three separate times.
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Now a Podcast Host
Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/WWD. Along with everything else Martha Stewart has done, she’s now trying her hand at being a podcast host. Stewart released her first podcast called The Martha Steward Podcast in partnership with iHeart Radio, with the first episode debuting on June 22, 2022.
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Oldest Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue Cover Star at 81
Image Credit: Photo by Nicholas Hunt/WireImage. At 81 years old, Martha Stewart broke another glass ceiling by being the oldest Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue Cover Star!
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