Martha Stewart's Daughter Was Once Married To Her Mom's Lawyer

Martha Stewart has had an interesting dating history, to say the very least. After ending her nearly-30-year marriage to publisher Andrew Stewart, the homemaking icon had a brief fling with actor Anthony Hopkins before entering a 15-year, on-and-off relationship with space-faring tech billionaire Charles Simonyi. As it turns out, peculiar romances run in the family, since Martha's daughter Alexis Stewart was once married to the man who was tasked with keeping her mom out of prison. To be fair, Alexis married attorney John Cuti long before Martha ran afoul of Johnny Law. 

The two wed in a private courthouse ceremony in New York on September 26, 1997. It was just under six years later, in June 2003, that Martha was indicted on nine different counts pertaining to a shocking insider trading scandal. Her son-in-law Cuti was tapped to represent the bestselling author in court, but he ultimately couldn't get her off. Martha managed to avoid an actual insider trading charge, but was found guilty of multiple obstruction-related crimes — including lying to federal investigators and conspiracy — in March 2004. She served five months in prison as a result.

Interestingly enough, though, Alexis and Cuti were actually in the process of splitting up during her mom's highly-publicized legal woes. They separated in 2003, with their divorce being finalized in 2004 — sometime after Martha's headline-grabbing trial.

Given that her mother Martha Stewart is known for her lavish lifestyle, it may be surprising for some to learn that Alexis Stewart's wedding was so low-key. In fact, the homemaking icon herself was just as shocked. Martha actually predicted what Alexis' wedding might look like in her 1987 book "Weddings." At the time, she envisioned an "event beyond my present imagination," with at least 150 guests in attendance. Fast-forward 10 years, and she was one of just five people present at the courthouse to watch her daughter and future lawyer tie the knot. 

In the December 1997 issue of Martha Stewart Living, the bestselling author even confessed that she was initially worried that she wouldn't be invited at all as a result. In the end, though, Martha wasn't just a guest. According to her article, she also "spent an afternoon with Alexis shopping for her wedding suit [...] [and] was allowed to plan a wedding luncheon and order flowers and cake," (via the Chicago Tribune).

The mother-daughter duo has certainly had their ups and downs over the years, with Alexis admitting in her mother's Netflix documentary that Martha Stewart's parenting instincts left something to be desired. Nowadays, they're totally fine, with Alexis explaining on "Today" in 2011, "We're incredibly close and we're both very opinionated people." As she reasoned, "If we agree on everything, how boring would that be?"