Martha Stewart net worth is estimated to be around $400 million as of 2024. Martha Stewart is an American Entrepreneur, writer, and TV personality born on August 3, 1941. She founded Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia focusing on homes and hospitality. Through this, she became successful in publishing broadcasting merchandising, and online sales. She’s written many popular books ran Martha Stewart Living magazine and hosted two TV shows.
In 2004, she got in legal trouble over the ImClone stock case and spent five months in jail. People thought this would ruin her business but in 2005 she started making a comeback. Her company became profitable again in 2006. She got back on her company’s board in 2011 and became chairwoman in 2012. Her company was bought by Sequential Brands in 2015 and later sold to Marquee Brands in 2019 for $175 million.
Martha Stewart in Brief
| Full Name | Martha Stewart |
| Date of Birth | August 3, 1941 |
| Place of Birth | Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, television personality, writer |
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) |
| Spouse | Andrew Stewart (m. 1961–1990) |
| Children | Alexis Stewart |
| Net Worth | $400 million |
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What is Martha Stewart Net Worth in 2024?
Martha Stewart is an American Entrepreneur, writer, and TV personality with a net worth of $400 million as of 2024, according to Celebrity Net Worth. She made her money through a variety of businesses, including TV shows, magazines, home products, and a company called Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Her company did well when it first went public, and she became the first American woman to make a billion dollars on her own. However, after the market crash, the company’s value dropped by more than half. Eventually, in 2015, she sold the company for over $350 million.
Martha began her career as a fashion model before moving into finance as a stockbroker. But it was her catering business in the late 1970s that made her famous. Her skills in presentation and gourmet cooking helped her gain a reputation among New York’s high society.
Her first cookbook, “Entertaining,” was a big hit when it was published in 1982. This success led to her TV show, “Martha Stewart Living,” which aired for more than ten years. The show helped her start Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which included publishing, TV, and products.
Over time, her brand grew to include a magazine, home goods, and a daily talk show. Even though she faced problems, including a high-profile legal case and prison time, she bounced back. She worked with companies like Macy’s and Payless to expand her brand.
In 2004, Martha spent five months in prison after being convicted of insider trading. She sold about 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems based on a tip from her stockbroker who had secret information. This move helped her avoid losing $45,673.
Martha Stewart’s Early Life and Education
Martha Stewart was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on August 3, 1941. She’s the second of six kids to Edward Kostyra and Martha Ruszkowski both teachers. They later moved to Nutley New Jersey when Martha was three. She picked the name “Grace” for her Catholic confirmation.
When Martha was 10 she babysat for the children of famous New York Yankees players like Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra. She also did some modeling gigs. By 15 she was in TV ads for Unilever and Tareyton cigarettes. In college, she modeled for Chanel to help pay her tuition.
Martha learned cooking and sewing from her mom and canning and gardening from her dad. She was also active in school clubs and graduated from Nutley High. At Barnard College, she initially studied chemistry but switched to art and history. She met Andrew Stewart a Yale Law School graduate and they got married in 1961. Martha eventually graduated with majors in history and architectural history.
Martha Stewart’s Career
In 1967, Martha Stewart started a new job as a stockbroker following her father-in-law’s footsteps. Around the same time, her husband Andrew Stewart began a publishing business and worked for several other companies. The couple moved to Westport Connecticut where they bought and fixed up an old farmhouse on Turkey Hill Road. This farmhouse later became the model for Martha Stewart’s TV studio.
In 1976, Martha started a catering business with a friend from her modeling days Norma Collier. The business did well at first but their partnership soured when Collier complained that Martha was hard to work with and was taking catering jobs on the side. Martha ended up buying out Collier’s share of the business. She also managed a gourmet food store called the Market Basket but she had a disagreement with the owners and left to start her store.
Meanwhile, Andrew was climbing the ranks in the publishing world. He became the president of a big publisher in New York City and was responsible for releasing a popular book series called The Secret Book of Gnomes. At a party for the book release, Martha’s talent for cooking and hosting caught the attention of Alan Mirken a big shot at Crown Publishing Group. He approached Martha to create a cookbook based on her parties which became her first book called “Entertaining.”
After the success of “Entertaining,” Martha released many more books and became a well-known figure in homemaking through her newspaper columns magazine articles, and TV appearances.
Later career
In 1990, Martha Stewart started a magazine called Martha Stewart Living with Time Publishing Ventures. She was the editor-in-chief, and the first issue had 250,000 copies. By 2002, the magazine was selling over 2 million copies per issue.
In 1993, she began a TV show also named Martha Stewart Living. It was a half-hour show but later became an hour-long show by 1999, airing weekdays and weekends. The show ran until 2004. She also appeared often on NBC’s Today Show and CBS’s The Early Show, along with holiday specials on CBS.
In 1995, New York Magazine called Stewart “the definitive American woman of our time.” In 2019, she launched her cannabis brand.
For a time, Martha Stewart Living had massive reach, showing how popular she became, with over 2 million magazines sold each issue.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
In September 1997, Martha Stewart, with the help of Sharon Patrick, got money to buy all the TV, print, and product businesses linked to the Martha Stewart brand. They formed a new company called Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO). Stewart became the CEO, and Patrick was the Chief Operations Officer. This helped Stewart bring all her brand’s parts together to make things work better and have more control. During the same month, Stewart announced a new website and catalog business called “Martha by Mail.” The company also sold flowers directly to customers.
On October 19, 1999, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia became a public company on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MSO. The stock started at $18 per share (about $33 in today’s money) and went up to $38 per share (about $70 today), making Stewart the first female self-made billionaire in the U.S. The stock later dropped to $16 per share by February 2002. Stewart still holds most of the shares, controlling 96% of the voting power in the company.
Martha Stewart’s Personal Life
Martha Stewart’s personal life has been quite eventful. She got married in 1961 to Andrew Stewart who was studying at Yale Law School at the time. Their daughter Alexis was born in 1965. However, their marriage didn’t last and they split up in 1987 before officially divorcing in 1990.
After her divorce, Martha dated Anthony Hopkins briefly but ended things after watching him play Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs.” She just couldn’t separate the actor from the creepy character.
Later on, she had a long on-and-off relationship with Charles Simonyi a billionaire who used to work at Microsoft. He even appeared on her TV show in 2007 as a space tourist. However, they eventually broke up around 2008.
Martha is fond of animals. She has Chow Chow dogs, French Bulldogs, Himalayan cats, a pony named Ben Chunch, and Friesian horses. When her daughter told her about fur farming she stopped wearing real fur.
Her mother Martha Kostyra passed away in 2007 at the age of 93. She was known as “Big Martha” to the family and had been on Martha Stewart’s show multiple times.
Martha Stewart lives in Katonah New York and also has a huge house in Seal Harbor Maine called Skylands. This property used to belong to Edsel Ford and is famous for its gardens designed by Jens Jensen back in 1922.
In a surprising twist, it was revealed in 2020 on “Finding Your Roots” that Martha Stewart and Jimmy Kimmel are cousins.
Martha Stewart’s Stock Trading Case
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found that Martha Stewart avoided losing $45673 by selling her ImClone Systems stock on December 27, 2001, based on secret information from her broker Peter Bacanovic. The next day the stock’s value dropped by 16%.
After this Stewart faced a lot of media attention and criticism. For instance, during an interview on CBS, she dodged questions about ImClone saying she wanted to talk about her salad instead. Eventually, she resigned from her position on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange.
In 2003, Stewart was accused of crimes related to securities fraud and obstructing justice. She stepped down as CEO but stayed on as the chief creative officer. She went to trial in 2004 and was found guilty leading to a five-month prison sentence and a fine.
Stewart also faced a civil case and had to pay back the money she saved from her stock sale along with additional penalties. She was also banned from certain roles in public companies for five years. Additionally, she had trouble traveling to the UK due to her criminal record.
Stewart served her prison sentence in West Virginia away from her preferred locations and was released in 2005. She then had to spend time under supervision and restrictions before fully completing her legal obligations.
Martha Stewart’s Current projects
After getting out of jail in March 2005, Martha Stewart made a big comeback. She got back into her Martha Stewart Living business and expanded her Martha Stewart Everyday line at Kmart. She also started selling home furnishings and paint at Sears. But her biggest return was on TV. She started hosting The Martha Stewart Show and joined a version of The Apprentice. Both shows started in September 2005 and were produced by Mark Burnett. Her version of The Apprentice didn’t do well and got canceled after one season.
In October 2005, Stewart released a new book called The Martha Rules about starting a business. Then a month later she released a book on baking. In October 2006, she released a book about keeping a house tidy. She also started giving cooking crafts and gardening tips on NBC’s Today show. Her daily talk show was nominated for six Daytime Emmy Awards in 2006.
Her company also started building houses with her name on them in North Carolina. They planned to build 650 homes with prices ranging from low to mid-$400000s. She also launched a line of products for Macy’s and started a radio show with Sirius. She even appeared on TV shows like Ugly Betty and made deals for her own wine brand and food line with Costco.
In 2008, her craft items started selling in Walmart stores. Then in 2010 her TV show moved to the Hallmark Channel but got canceled in 2012. She started a new show called Martha Bakes and made an appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
She continued her TV career with Martha Stewart’s Cooking School on PBS in 2012. In 2014, she partnered with eBay for an online store promoting American-made products. In 2016 she started a show with Snoop Dogg called Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party.
In 2018 and 2019, she appeared on shows like Chopped and The Ellen DeGeneres Show and she joined a Canadian marijuana company as an adviser. In 2020, she started a gardening show called Martha Knows Best. She also launched a line of CBD gummies and a podcast in 2022. Recently she made headlines for appearing on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue at 81 years old making her the oldest model to ever grace the cover.
Martha Stewart Real Estate
Martha Stewart has an impressive property collection, worth over $100 million.
One of her most famous homes is “Skylands” in Seal Harbor, Maine. She bought the 67-acre estate, built in 1952 for Edsel Ford, in 1997. This property has a 12-bedroom home and a pink driveway. In 2015, Martha bought an extra 7 acres next door for $5.8 million.
In Katonah, New York, Martha owns a 152-acre estate called “Cantitoe Corners.” She also owned a 1-acre oceanfront property in Easthampton, New York, which she bought in 1991. She sold it in 2021 for $16.5 million.
In New York City’s West Village, Martha owns multiple units on Perry Street, although her daughter Alexis now lives there. In 2019, Alexis listed another NYC property, with over 9,000 square feet, for $53 million.
Martha also has condos in New York. She owns one on Fifth Avenue with views of Central Park. In 2024, she paid $12.3 million for a condo in The Belnord building.
