Martha Stewart is a household name, having gotten famous for her career as a lifestyle guru. But the Netflix documentary Martha pulls back the curtain on the turmoil happening in her personal life as she became one of the first female billionaires.
The 83-year-old has made it clear that she isn’t exactly thrilled with how she was portrayed in Martha. But given everything it covered, it’s understandable to wonder what Martha is up to these days. Here’s what she’s shared.
She’s staying active with a few healthy habits.
While the documentary shows Martha busy overseeing gardening and landscaping work on her upstate New York property, she’s also crushing it at the gym.
Martha is an early-morning exerciser, leaving the house for a Pilates class by 6:15 a.m. three times a week. “[The instructor and I] are the only people in the [studio] at that time,” she told Women’s Health last year. “Nobody else gets up that early.”
She also does plenty of yoga, along with exercising in her home gym. Also in the mix: Horseback riding at least once a week and having a green juice daily. (It gives her “glowing skin and increased energy,” she says.)
She isn’t a fan of plastic surgery…
After posing for Sports Illustrated Swim, plenty of people claimed online that Martha had plastic surgery. But that isn’t true, Martha says. “I’ve had absolutely no plastic surgery whatsoever,” she told Variety in 2023. “I have very healthy, good hair. I drink green juice every day. I take my vitamins. I eat very healthfully. I have very good skin doctors. I’m very careful in the sun. I wear hats and I wear sunblock every single day.”
But Martha isn’t opposed to injectables. “Every now and then there are certain fillers that I can do for a little line here or there, but I hate Botox,” she said. “It’s a weird thing for me. I really and truly don’t do a lot.”
…or the documentary.
Martha has been pretty outspoken about not loving the final results of her documentary. She criticized director R.J. Cutler for not using more archival footage, for starters.
“R.J. had total access, and he really used very little,” she told The New York Times. “It was just shocking.”
Meanwhile, she “hates” the scenes of herself outside. “Those last scenes with me looking like a lonely old lady walking hunched over in the garden? Boy, I told him to get rid of those. And he refused. I hate those last scenes. Hate them,” she said. “I had ruptured my Achilles’ tendon. I had to have this hideous operation. And so I was limping a little. But again, he doesn’t even mention why—that I can live through that and still work seven days a week.”
She’s also annoyed that her magazine wasn’t covered more, didn’t like the camera angles that Cutler chose, and is ticked that her conversations about her grandchildren weren’t included.
She hasn’t spoken to her ex-husband Andy.
The documentary details Martha’s marriage to her former husband, Andy, as well as how it fell apart. But Martha says she hasn’t spoken to her ex in more than two decades.
When asked if Andy had seen the documentary, Martha told People, “I haven’t talked to him for over 20 years. Sadly.”
She and her daughter Alexis are super close.
Martha gave birth to the couple’s daughter Alexis when she was in her early 20s. And while she took care of Alexis as a young mom, she didn’t dote on her, the doc notes.
Now, Alexis and Martha are now pretty tight, she says.
“We’re incredibly close and we’re both very opinionated people,” Alexis said during a 2011 episode of Today. “So while we can be together having a nice time we can also have an animated discussion slash argument about something. Because that’s normal. So if we agree on everything, how boring would that be?”
Alexis and Martha in 2010.
Alexis has two children, a daughter named Jude and a son named Truman. And while Martha she spoke a lot about them while filming, that footage wasn’t included.
“There’s not even a mention. And these grandchildren are utterly fantastic,” she told the Times. “My daughter was very against the children being included. But I could have talked about them, and I did. I’ve taken them to the most unusual places in the world, and they’re only 12 and 13.”
She lives in Katonah, New York, and has a bunch of other properties.
Currently, Martha resides in Katonah, New York, at a place called Cantitoe Corners. But she isn’t hard up for real estate.
She also has an estate called Skylands in Seal Harbor, Maine, and an apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York City, according to House & Garden.
She regularly shares photos on Instagram from her properties.
She doesn’t live with regrets.
Possibly the biggest secret to Martha’s longevity is her mindset. She’s had “two real setbacks—a sad divorce and my well-documented legal issues,” she told AARP last year, which is “pretty good, having only two.”
“I have a couple regrets, but nothing major,” she added. “Aging isn’t something I think about. How old I am, slowing down, retiring—I just don’t dwell on that.”
Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a master’s degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.
