Martha Stewart: ‘I could have been Elle Macpherson’

This story is part of the May 25 edition of Sunday Life.See all 14 stories.

Her name is synonymous with home-making, but Martha Stewart says before she became a domestic goddess, a different career beckoned.

“I could have been Elle Macpherson,” says Stewart, deadpan.

Could Stewart, who has written more than 100 books and inspired generations of dinner-party-throwing women around the world, really have been a precursor to the supermodel cohort – Elle, Naomi, Claudia, Linda and co?

“I wish I realised that I was attractive back then,” she says. “I never thought I was beautiful when I was younger, but when I look back at old pictures of myself, I was a pretty girl. I could have been a supermodel if I wanted to.”

Although she chose the kitchen over the catwalk, Stewart still had numerous opportunities to experience what might have been. As a 20-year-old student in 1961, she was named one of Glamour magazine’s 10 best-dressed college girls. And in the ’60s she also did a Chanel shoot, keeping the garments she’d modelled as part of her payment. “I did … a lot of commercials and paid my way through college with my earnings.”

Still, it was Stewart’s 2023 appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazine, aged 81 and wearing a white one-piece swimsuit, that, as they say, nearly broke the internet. While supporters believed the youthful-looking Stewart was breaking new ground in the battle against ageism, critics wondered if she was perpetuating negative tropes about female beauty and ageing.

Stewart remains proud of that moment, despite the naysayers. “The response to the cover was phenomenal and supposedly the best-selling ever – can you believe that!” she says. “I think it did so well because it appealed to women of all ages and showed opportunity… It’s about showing women that no matter your age, or the work you do, there are always a lot of things you can do in life.”

Stewart certainly has had a full life. In 1999, she became America’s first self-made female billionaire, having expanded the humble catering business she launched in 1976 into an empire that includes books, podcasts, TV shows, merchandise and namesake magazines.

Despite serving five months’ jail in 2004, Martha Stewart has maintained both her innocence, and popularity.Credit: Gieves Anderson/Trunk Archive/Snapper

In many ways, Stewart was the original lifestyle influencer, teaching her fans how to put the bliss into domesticity, replicate gourmet recipes at home and host the perfect dinner party. She later embraced social media at the right time, converting her loyal fan base in print to more than 5.6 million followers on Instagram.

Speaking to Sunday Life via Zoom ahead of an in-conversation event with Benjamin Law at this month’s Vivid Sydney, Stewart says that when she reflects on her life, she’s never given herself an easy ride. “I am extremely critical, the most critical person you will ever meet – especially about myself,” she says. “I’m seriously critical about everybody else, too; I am just better at not verbalising it.”

Still, some reviews of Martha, a 2024 Netflix documentary about her life, called out Stewart for not living up to the film’s promise of being an honest account of her highs and lows, most notably the five-month jail sentence she served after being convicted in 2004 of conspiracy, obstruction and two counts of lying to federal investigators (Stewart has always maintained her innocence).

During her time at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia, Stewart conceived the idea for a book on self-improvement, in part inspired by her fellow inmates. She also spent time making ceramics and learned how to crochet.

As redemptive arcs go, Stewart’s has been extraordinary, earning her a whole new generation of fans. “The popularity and the attention I get now is vaster than it’s ever been,” she says.

“It’s interesting that the documentary has made a big difference to people. They knew who I was before seeing it, but had no idea of the entire picture, and while the documentary isn’t the entire picture, what they see is the overstepping of a government and a cruelty taking place to a successful woman.”

Martha Stewart flanked by US Marshals after her 2004 conviction for conspiracy, obstruction and two counts of lying to federal investigators. She maintains her innocence.Credit: AP

Stewart’s boosted popularity has even impressed her two teenage grandchildren, who recently accompanied her to a red-carpet event in New York. “[My grandchildren] see crowds coming to me for autographs and selfies, and that’s all happened because of the documentary,” she says.

All this explains why the organisers of Vivid Sydney pursued Stewart as one of the headline guests of this year’s festival. The last time Stewart visited Australia was in 2019 for a family holiday which took in both ends of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race (she was partial to Hobart’s bakeries, sharing photos on Instagram). Before that, she was in Sydney in 2011 with George Clooney for the inaugural Global Leadership Forum.

Born Martha Helen Kostyra, Stewart was raised in New Jersey by her parents, both teachers (her father later became a pharmaceutical salesman). She learnt to sew and cook from her mother, also named Martha, and began doing modelling jobs as a teenager, including an advertisement for a cigarette company.

So who or what dissuaded Stewart from pursuing a career in fashion? Not her parents, she says, nor any of her five siblings. “I didn’t consider myself devoid of advice while I was growing up – I had a really good mother and father and came from a big family,” she says. “I don’t have any regrets not going down that path.”

Instead, in 1961, 20-year-old Martha married Andrew Stewart, with whom she had her only child, a daughter named Alexis. She got divorced in 1990, has never remarried and is guarded about her private life, though she has publicly dated tech billionaire Charles Simonyi and actor Anthony Hopkins.

These days, she says she prefers the company of the close group of friends, both older and younger, who often accompany her on work engagements via private jet. “I have friends who have been in my life a long time,” she says.

I’m seriously critical about everybody else, too; I am just better at not verbalising it.

Martha Stewart

Stewart has also forged ties with Hollywood heavyweights, not to mention a surprising business partnership with rapper Snoop Dogg which began after he was a guest on her self-titled TV show in 2008. Together, they have collaborated on products ranging from wine to phone cases and even co-hosted a cooking show.

The pair attended last year’s Paris Olympics together and were famously photographed at the equestrian dressage events. “I got Snoop to like horses,” says Stewart, beaming. “He’s kind of afraid of horses … but he got dressed up in the appropriate dressage attire and loved the whole experience.”

So too did Olympic organisers, the pair’s appearance proving a ratings winner. Less successful were Stewart’s attempts to influence Snoop’s eating habits, describing the rapper as a picky eater who travels with his own chef. “I tried to get him to eat escargots in Paris; he didn’t do it,” she says.

“I got Snoop to like horses,” says Stewart of her time spent with friend and collaborator Snoop Dogg at the Paris Olympics.Credit: Getty Images

Despite a lifetime devotion to living the good life, Stewart remains passionate about looking after her health, proud that she still has all her own bones and teeth. Three days a week, her alarm sounds at 5.30am for a private Pilates session at a nearby studio. She also likes to hike, ride horses and look after her animals.

“I swim and do a lot of physical activity too,” she says. “People are amazed at how strong I am for my age, but that’s important to me.”

Stewart still gets a buzz from working, and sees no reason to stop, a MasterChef-style TV show called Yes, Chef! being her latest project. “I’m still able to work every single day if I want, and I love being productive. I love writing books and doing TV shows and appearances – it’s part of who I am. It’s my life, and I am a hard worker.”

Stewart keeps a base on New York’s Upper West Side (she recently bought an apartment with daughter Alexis in the Belnord complex made famous by the TV series Only Murders in the Building), but when she craves peace she retreats to a 1920s farmhouse on 60 hectares in Katonah, in upstate New York.

While home and everything it means has long been the focus of Stewart’s work, it’s also her favourite place to escape. “Home is everything to me … limitless and endlessly interesting,” she says. “That is why my business has been so successful – because I genuinely believe in home-making, home-keeping and home-living. They are subjects worthy of a person’s attention – both inside and outside the home.

“If people stop talking about you, then you know there’s something wrong. I haven’t worked this hard for nothing.”

Reflecting on all she has achieved, there’s an air of calm after the storm in the way Stewart speaks about her life. “I’m pretty happy with the way things have turned out,” she says. “I am successful in my work and my family. There are ups and downs all the time, but it’s generally excellent.”

Martha Stewart will appear at Vivid Sydney on May 28; vividsydney.com.

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