Martha Stewart’s new Netflix documentary has unveiled some bombshells about the celebrity chef’s long and fascinating life, touching on everything from her prison time to her husband’s infidelity.
Directed by R.J. Cutler, the film follows her journey to stardom that became fraught with infidelity, prison time and family secrets.
Join HELLO! as we discover the five biggest revelations from the Martha documentary.
Martha was raised in an abusive household
© Arthur SchatzMartha’s father was physically and emotionally abusive towards his children, often doling out corporal punishment. The 83-year-old called him a “dissatisfied, unhappy human being” who would whip her brothers if they made even the slightest mistake.
She recalled when her then-boyfriend Andy Steward, a Jewish Yale Law School student, proposed to her, and she went to tell her father the happy news. “It seemed such a natural thing to do, fall in love, get married,” she began. “But I went home and told my dad, and my dad slapped me.”
“He slapped me hard on my face and said, ‘No, you’re not marrying him. He’s a Jew’. I remember getting that slap. I was not at all surprised because he was a bigot, and he was impulsive.“
Nevertheless, Martha ignored her father’s objections and married Andy anyway in 1961. “Andy was so nice, not at all like my father,“ she said in the documentary.
Her 30-year marriage was riddled with affairs
© GettyMartha’s 30-year marriage was rife with infidelity, she revealed in the Netflix documentary. On their honeymoon, she kissed a man in Italy and also enjoyed “a very brief affair with a very attractive Irishman”, but their fling was not enough to break up the marriage.
Andy, on the other hand, had multiple affairs throughout their entire marriage, causing an immense mental toll on Martha as she tried to repair their relationship. “I didn’t go run off with people. He was running off with people,“ she said of her former husband. “I always said I was a swan, and like all swans, they are monogamous.“
“And I thought monogamy was admirable. I did. I thought it was admirable. But it turned out that it didn’t save a marriage.” In Martha’s letters to Andy, she would wish him a good trip away while she hoped her plane would crash, showcasing her pain at her husband’s infidelity.
Eventually, the couple acknowledged that they should split and separated in 1987. The pair officially divorced in 1990, despite Martha’s objections. “He’s the one who wanted the divorce. Not I,“ she said. “He was throwing me away. I was 40 years old. I was gorgeous. I was a desirous woman, but he was treating me like a castaway.“
“He treated me really badly, and, in return, I guess I treated him badly.”
Martha lacked maternal instincts after her daughter was born
© Larry BusaccaMotherly instincts did not come easy for the businesswoman, who welcomed her only child, Alexis, in 1965. She blamed her fraught upbringing for her lack of warmth when it came to parenting her daughter.
“Turns out it’s not natural at all to be a mother,“ she said in the documentary. “There was not a lot of affection in our house. How could I be a really great mother if I didn’t have the education to be a mother?“
Alexis herself confirmed that her mother was always emotionally distant when she was growing up and found it difficult to connect with her.
“She was always a bit chilly,“ she said. “I grew up in a very uncomfortable house, and I learned to suppress most of my emotions.”
She was kept in solitary confinement with no food or water
© PoolThe chef spent five months in prison for her 2004 insider trading scandal, which she described as a “horrifying“ experience.
Martha recalled being strip searched during her prison sentence and being forced into solitary confinement for a day after touching a guard. “No food or water for a day,“ she described. “This was Camp Cupcake, remember? That was the nickname. Camp Cupcake. It was not a cupcake.”
She kept a diary during her time behind bars, writing this after her first day in prison: “Physical exam, stripped of all clothes. Squat, arms out, cough— embarrassing.” The mother of one believed herself to be a scapegoat for the rife corruption at the time, blaming the prosecutors for her fate.
“It was so horrifying to me that I had to go through that to be a trophy for these idiots in the US attorney’s office,“ Martha said about the insider trading scandal. “Those prosecutors should’ve been put in a Cuisinart and turned on high.
Martha disagreed with her portrayal in the documentary
© Roy RochlinIn a surprising twist, Martha revealed that she disagreed with how she was portrayed in the documentary, believing it to focus too much on the trial, which was “unfair”. “It was not that important. The trial and the actual incarceration was less than two years out of an 83-year life. I considered it a vacation, to tell you the truth,“ Stewart told The New York Times.
In response, the documentary’s director, R.J. Cutler, revealed how proud he was of the film and explained how he admired “Martha’s courage in entrusting me to make it”.
“I’m not surprised that it’s hard for her to see aspects of it,“ he said. “It’s the story of an incredibly interesting human being who is complicated and visionary and brilliant.“
He reiterated that this was the art of filmmaking and that the subjects were not always pleased with the final result. “I’ve worked with other people and made films about them, and they certainly would make different films,“ he told the publication.
“You would make a different film about Martha than I made, and I respect that. But I think the day we met, we agreed that if we were to do this I would have final cut, and Martha understood that.“
