Martha Stewart

Martha Helen Stewart was born on August 3, 1941, in Jersey City, New Jersey, and grew up in Nutley, New Jersey, as one of six children. She attended Barnard College in New York City on a partial scholarship and worked as a model during college to help pay expenses, which introduced her to the worlds of publishing and visual presentation that later influenced her aesthetic and media career. After college, Stewart began a sequence of careers: she worked as a model, became a stockbroker at Columbia-Seligman, and later moved to Westport, Connecticut, where she turned to home cooking and catering while restoring a 19th-century farmhouse with her then-husband Andrew Stewart. Her catering business and growing reputation for elegant, detail-oriented entertaining led to the 1982 publication of her first major book, Entertaining, which became a bestseller and launched her as an authority on lifestyle and homekeeping. During the late 1980s and 1990s, Stewart expanded into television and publishing, launching the magazine Martha Stewart Living and a series of TV shows, specials, and syndicated programs that broadened her audience and transformed her into a household name; in 1997 she incorporated these ventures into Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and took the company public in 1999. At its peak, MSLO encompassed magazines, books, television, merchandising, and licensing deals that generated substantial retail sales and made Stewart a billionaire on paper after the IPO. In the early 2000s, Stewart faced legal trouble: she was investigated and charged in connection with an insider trading matter and, following a guilty plea to obstruction of justice and related charges, served five months in federal prison in 2004 and was released in 2005. After completing her sentence, she returned to business and media, rebuilding her brand with new TV shows, books, and partnerships; she later rejoined the company board and continued to expand her product lines and media presence well into the 2010s and 2020s.