Tragic Details About Martha Stewart

Despite being one of the most successful homemakers and entrepreneurs in history, Martha Stewart's success story is plagued with immense trials and tribulations. While still reveling in her swirling financial growth, her achievements were quickly overshadowed when she was found guilty of insider trading in 2004. Following a tense trial, she was sentenced to 150 days in prison.

And although incarceration is hard on any first-time convict, it's even harder when you were once a CEO with everyone at your beck and call. At the mandatory exam required to admit new prisoners, the mogul-turned-felon was stripped for a search. Stewart recalled the humiliating search during her prison stint in her Netflix documentary: "Squat, arms out, cough — embarrassing ... I had to do all that crap that you see in the movies."

But things only got worse. She was soon sent into solitary confinement for touching a guard: "I was called in to be told never, ever touch a guard without expecting severe reprimand." And severely reprimanded she was. "I was dragged into solitary for touching an officer. No food or water for a day." Stewart's days in the guardhouse eventually ended, and she was free to go home. Unfortunately, she had no one to lean on.

Martha and Andrew Stewart tied the knot in 1961, long before her rise in the homemaking business. Although their marriage lasted for 29 years, it was far from a happy union. "He was not satisfied at home. I don't know how many different girlfriends he had during this time, but I think there were quite a few," Martha shared in her documentary. Worsening the situation, some of these girlfriends were people she knew. In one instance, he even started a relationship with an employee Martha had graciously welcomed into her home.

"When I was traveling, Andy started up with her. It was like I put out a snack for Andy," she recalled. When Martha found out, she tore into the woman and threw her out, though she placed the major blame on her ex-husband: "Andy betrayed me, right on our property."

Interestingly, Andrew claims that he wasn't the first to break their marital vows — Martha was. It's worth noting that the author and businesswoman admitted to having at least two affairs in her documentary. She shared she once kissed a man during their honeymoon and later had a brief relationship with an Irish man. In the end, though, it was Andrew who sealed their marriage's fate by filing for divorce.

As it turns out, the employee who betrayed Martha Stewart, according to her, was Robyn Fairclough. And though Martha sent her out of the house, it didn't end Fairclough's relationship with Andrew Stewart. Martha soon realized her husband was leaving her and became frantic. In the documentary "Martha," she shares some of the letters she wrote in distress: "Dear Andy, I understand you're craving for sex with others. No one will ever care about you like I do nor will ever love you as much. Give me another chance, Andy. I'm so sorry about so much. Why does it have to be too late?"

A different letter read: "Dear Andy, maybe you are planning to marry her and keep her with my money so that she can paint herself in portraits in the nude." Eventually, even Martha realized her wishes would do no good. The couple divorced in 1990, and Andrew Stewart married Robyn Fairclough in 1993. They later divorced before Andrew moved on to his third wife. 

Beyond dealing with a failing marriage and a prison sentence, one of the most tragic parts of Martha Stewart's life involved a heartbreaking betrayal by her best friend of over 20 years, Mariana Pasternak, who was a biomedical engineer. Pasternak not only testified against Martha at her trial and helped send her to prison, but also wrote a book revealing secrets that deeply affected Martha's public name.

The engineer told the New York Post that the book was an effort to "de-Martha-rize" herself, but it was really a tabloid-style memoir exposing private details Martha had shared in confidence. In one instance, Pasternak described her as an insecure woman who pursued men in a desperate attempt to feel wanted after Andrew Stewart left her. These allegations might be why Martha Stewart went out of her way to clarify she isn't looking for a serious romance anytime soon.

Pasternak said she repeatedly joined her former friend on "stalking missions" on her ex-husband and partners she was obsessed with. To top it off, the engineer claimed Stewart was a terrible friend. She described avoiding bathroom breaks while dining out with Stewart and other friends to escape being gossiped about. However, one of Mariana Pasternak's most damning claims was that Martha's success was largely thanks to Andrew's help. These claims and allegations must have hurt Martha Stewart, considering she was a godmother to Pasternak's kids.

Despite Martha Stewart's stunning transformation from stockbroker to multi-millionaire, she remained close to her family and hired several of her siblings to work with her. Out of all her siblings, however, she seemed closest to her youngest sister, Laura Plimpton, who worked for her for more than 25 years. In a post on The Martha Blog, Stewart recalled when Laura was born: "Our mother wanted to name her Dorothy, but we persuaded her to name her Laura instead. We still don't know why we didn't like the name Dorothy, but Laura was beloved by all as Laura."

Tragically, Laura suffered a brain aneurysm at age 59 and died soon after, leaving Stewart and her siblings devastated. Sharing the news on her blog in 2014, Martha revealed that Laura was an organ donor: "We are so sad but also happy that Laura had the foresight to donate so many healthy organs to needy people."

The family faced another sudden loss three years later when their brother, George Christiansen, passed away without warning. Years later, on March 13, 2023, Stewart spoke of the brutal loss to their family, sharing a picture of him at his daughter's wedding on Instagram: "George died an untimely death on this day in 2017. We miss him."

Having a pet opens the door to heartbreak when you lose them due to old age or health issues, but Martha Stewart has endured multiple tragic pet losses that are far more sudden and shocking. In 2009, she revealed on The Martha Blog that her Chow Chow, Ghenghis Khan, had been killed in a propane gas explosion while boarding at a kennel. "The cause of the blast has yet to be determined," she shared. Sadly, there were more devastating losses to come.

In April 2022, she shared that her cat had been killed by her own dogs, who had mistaken her for an intruder and attacked. "I will miss her very badly," she wrote on Instagram. Then, months later in July, she revealed that coyotes had broken into her home and decimated six of her pet peacocks, including BlueBoy, whose picture she posted on Instagram.

Although the post featured Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On," Stewart quickly added a disclaimer: "By the way, I do not have any idea how the Marvin Gaye music found its way to this sad post, but when Blue Boy was alive, it would have been perfectly appropriate."