Christmas with (a different) Martha Stewart: her ups and downs in photos

Martha Stewart is well-known as a television personality and lifestyle guru. She became the first influencer in the world thanks to her expertise in cooking, entertaining, and crafting in the 1970s and '80s.

By the 1990s, Martha Stewart had a successful media empire, built around her unique persona. However, somewhere on this fabulous path, things went wrong...

At the turn of the century, Martha Stewart was caught in an act of insider trading. She had to spend five months in jail in 2004 and 2005 and lost millions with her company.

The Netflix documentary 'Martha' recounts these tragic events and tells much of the story in Martha Stewart's own voice. So if you want to spend Christmas with Martha Stewart but a little differently than you'd expect, this film is highly recommended.

To see how Martha Stewart arose as the world's first influencer in the 20th century and recovered her career in the next, have a look at the unique pictures we collected in this gallery.

Born as Martha Kostyra on August 3, 1941, in Jersey City, New Jersey, the ambitious young woman initially pursued a career in modeling. In the photo, you can see her posing for 'Glamour's 10 best-dressed college girls' in 1961.

After college, Stewart worked as a stockbroker and learned the skills of business. However, her interest in cooking and entertaining became more important to her. She had learned a lot about homemaking as a young girl in a Polish-American family.

Having gained fame with TV appearances and books in the 70s and 80s, Martha Stewart began her own business in the 1990s. 'Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia' was a company that sold not just magazines and books but also television shows and products. Her role as a "lifestyle guru" was now set in stone.

'MSLO' (Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia) made Martha Stewart a wealthy entrepreneur, Business Insider and other media report. She combined her knowledge of media, lifestyle, and business in one successful company. Its weakness, however, was that the entire company's success depended on her own personal reputation.

On October 19, 1999, Stewart's company went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Her shares began at a price of $18 but rose to $38 in one day, Business Insider recounts. They made Martha Stewart a multi-millionaire almost instantly.

However, as a high-profile businesswoman and trader, Stewart also got into trouble. One day in 2001, she sold 4,000 shares of a company called ImClone Systems. The next day, that same stock plummeted in the market. Martha Stewart's early sale of the shares became suspicious, Fortune magazine and other specialized media reported.

Did she know something about the company that others did not? In case she did, it was insider trading, and that's prohibited.

(In the photo, Martha Stewart and the late Ivana Trump)

The highly publicized trial for insider trading lasted six weeks. Strikingly, the famous homemaker and influencer was found guilty and sentenced to 5 months in federal prison.

At the time of the trial, Stewart claimed it was unfair that she was singled out as a celebrity for a crime that occurs a lot on Wall Street. She hated "to be a trophy for these idiots in the U.S. attorney’s office," she told Netflix in 2024.

With her characteristic sense of humor, she told Netflix in 2024: "Those prosecutors should have been put in a Cuisinart and turned on high."

Yet, the outcome of the case was confirmed on appeal and Martha had to go to jail. The cell she inhabited is shown in this photo. To Netflix, she described her time in prison as "so horrifying to me that I had to go through that."

After her release from prison in March 2005, Stewart still had to be under supervised release for 2 years. For five of those months, Martha was in home confinement with electronic surveillance.

She took it all in jest, though, and showed people her ankle bracelet. As an interesting character from the upper-middle class with a criminal record, she managed to make herself a TV personality again.

Stewart returned to television in September 2005 with her own talk show, 'The Martha Stewart Show.' In addition, she made a spin-off of Donald Trump's reality show: 'The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.'

In 2005 she released her book 'The Martha Rules'. It described how to best "Start, Build, or Manage a Business." As she shared her own experiences and advice for running a business, she made it clear that her conviction may have knocked her down temporarily, but that she was not defeated as a businesswoman.

In 2007, Stewart began yet another enterprise: she partnered with E & J Gallo Winery and created her own line of wines under the label 'Martha Stewart Vintage'.

Her TV personality was further developed with special appearances in different TV shows and movies, such as 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show', 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit', 'Ugly Betty', '2 Broke Girls', 'Bad Moms', and 'Men in Black II'.

Image: NBC / Amazon, 'Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit'

Then, Martha Stewart met the rapper Snoop Dogg on the set of 'The Martha Stewart Show' in 2008. The episode, in which they prepared mashed potatoes together, proved to be very important to both of their TV careers. The chemistry between the two, completely different, stars was obvious.

Martha told People in 2018: "When you work with someone like Snoop, it's like having a sidekick. That's why all the comedians have sidekicks and bands, because it loosens them up and lets them be freer. Snoop is my freedom."

In 2016, the unusual duo premiered a show on VH1. 'Martha and Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party' was a fun variety show in which they shared recipes, games, and musical guests.

Image: VH1

The Netflix documentary 'Martha' shows how a resourceful businesswoman managed to survive in a man's world. She talks openly and with humor about her personal and professional (mis)fortunes, including her high-profile love life and the friends and enemies she made over time.

Image: Netflix, 'Martha'

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