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Martha Stewart, a longtime teacher through her cookbooks, television shows, and namesake magazines, now opens up about her life's journey in the Netflix documentary *Martha*. "I hope people take away some valuable lessons and understand more about what I've experienced," she tells People.
In the documentary, Stewart, now 83, candidly addresses complex aspects of her life, including her marriage to publisher Andy Stewart. The two married in 1961, divorced in 1990, and share a daughter, Alexis, born in 1965. Both Martha and Andy had extramarital affairs, which she discusses openly.
One memory Stewart recalls is from her European honeymoon. In Florence's iconic Duomo, she shared a kiss with a "very handsome guy" while her husband was back at their hotel. "He didn't know I was married," she remembers. "I was just a young girl in a deeply emotional place, and it happened."
Later, while working as a stockbroker in the late 1960s, Stewart had a brief relationship with an Irish man. "It was a fleeting moment," she says. "I would never have let it jeopardize my marriage."
In contrast, Andy said he didn't stray until she had, with Martha noting that he had "quite a few girlfriends" during that period. "He wasn't content at home," she explains in the film, advising, "Young women, if your husband starts cheating, don't stay—leave him."
One particularly painful affair involved a woman who worked on flower arrangements at their Westport, Connecticut property, Turkey Hill Farm. Stewart had invited her employee to stay in an apartment on the property when she needed a place to live, but while Martha was away, Andy and the employee grew close. "It felt like I had served her up to him," Martha says. When she learned of the affair, she promptly ended the arrangement, telling them both, "What's going on here?"
Reflecting on the betrayal, she admits, "I was painfully jealous." Martha and Andy ultimately divorced, though she recalls he initiated it, casting her aside. "I was 40, vibrant, but he made me feel discarded," she shares. Despite these hardships, the Turkey Hill home they renovated together launched her career, though they haven't spoken in over 20 years.
