Martha Stewart cheated on her ex-husband

Martha Stewart has broken quite a few rules in her time. In the trailer of her upcoming Netflix documentary: Marta, the lifestyle queen revealed she cheated on her first husband, Andy Stewart, during their marriage – and that her ex never found out.

“Young women, take my advice: If you’re married and your husband starts cheating on you, he’s a piece of shit,” 83-year-old Stewart says in the trailer. “Get out of that marriage.” A producer then comes in with a question for the interior design expert: “Didn’t you have an affair early on?” Stewart’s answer? “Yeah, but I don’t think Andy ever knew about that.”

According to People, Stewart met her first husband Andy, then a law student at Yale, on a blind date. After dating for just a year, they married in 1961. In 1965, Stewart gave birth to their daughter, Alexis Stewart. Andy would later pursue a career in publishing. He is currently publisher emeritus of Fieldstone Publishing, a nature-oriented publisher.

Of course, Martha would launch a lifestyle empire at the same time. She told me People her adventures in home decorating began when she and Andrew restored “a schoolhouse in the Berkshires” on the weekends. In 1971, the couple purchased a fixer-upper in Westport, Connecticut. They called the property Turkey Hill; that’s where Martha launched her lifestyle brand in earnest.

Martha and Andrew would eventually split in 1987. Their divorce was finalized in 1990 and Andrew would marry three years later. Robyn Fairclough—Martha’s former assistant, who was 21 years younger than Andrew. Andrew and Robyn would also eventually divorce, and he would remarry Shyla Nelson Stewart president and CEO of Fieldstone Publishing, in 2016. Martha never married again.

“Divorce was a terrible thing for me because we were the first in my family to get divorced,” she said People in 2020. “And the fact that we haven’t spoken to each other since the divorce is even more painful. But I am very strong and I am very motivated to continue with life.

In the trailer of the Netflix documentary, Martha reflects on the past. “What is more important: a marriage or a career?” she asks. “Don’t know.” Some might argue that Martha cared a little too much about her business; after all, she served five months in federal prison in the early 2000s for lying about why she sold stock in a biotech company. Since then, Martha has become a household name again for all the right reasons. She shares lifestyle tips with her 2 million followers on Instagram and capitalizes on her unlikely friendship with Snoop Dogg.

From the preview of the documentary, it is clear that she has no regrets about giving up life as a housewife for a career. “The cookie cutter house and the cookie cutter life were not for me,” she says in the trailer. ‘I could have just been a miserable housewife, but I didn’t let that happen to myself. And I’m so glad I didn’t.” Marta releases on Netflix on October 30.