Self-Made Billionaire Martha Stewart's Path from Lifestyle Mogul to Yes, Chef! Host
From her homemade wedding gown to how her friendship with Snoop Dogg began, here's what you might not know about Martha Stewart and her rise to fame.
Lifestyle mogul Martha Stewart will soon be whipping up some competition in the kitchen with her latest series Yes, Chef!
Martha will host the innovative new cooking competition on NBC alongside fellow Emmy Award-winning chef José Andrés, nurturing — and critiquing — a promising new generation of chefs eager to make their mark in the industry.
As part of the series, 12 talented chefs will face off in high-stakes competitions that turn up the heat — but there’s a unique twist. Each contestant will also have something holding them back, whether it’s ego, stubbornness, or another Achilles’ heel, and will have to find a way to conquer their own personal demons to rise to the top.
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For Martha, it’s just the latest chapter in a wide-ranging career that’s been punctuated by best-selling books, popular television series, magazines, and even her own lifestyle brand.
To learn more about how the self-made billionaire built her empire, read on below:
Martha Stewart’s Early Life and Career
Martha Stewart may be a household name, but the lifestyle tycoon was once known by another moniker. She was born in 1941 as Martha Kostyra, one of six children to Edward and Martha Kostyra, according to her website.
Aside from sharing a name with her mother, Martha also picked up her mom’s can-do spirit, learning how to do all kinds of do-it-yourself projects as a child growing up in a modest house in Nutley, New Jersey. She credits her mom with being her greatest teacher, teaching her everything from cooking and baking to finding a way to make every occasion special.
"When I was growing up, my family celebrated every holiday with great enthusiasm," Martha once told MarthaStewart.com. "For Easter, we would dress up, go to church, and then venture off on an excursion…To this day, I love sharing the joy of special occasions with family and friends."
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While Martha may have embraced her creative side from a young age — even picking up gardening tips from her father — it wasn’t always the focus of her career.
Martha got her start in high school as a teen model, appearing in print ads and television commercials for some big name clients like Clairol and Lifebuoy Soap. She kept modeling through the early 1960s as a young college student at New York City’s Barnard College.
After earning her degree in history and architectural history, Martha pivoted once again and landed a job as a stockbroker on Wall Street, per her bio on PBS.
In 1970, she and then-husband Andrew Stewart decided to leave the bustling city behind and settled in their famed home in Westport, Connecticut, known as Turkey Hill.
There, Martha decided to walk away from her finance job and started her own catering company out of her kitchen, kicking off what would eventually become her own domestic empire.
A Brief History of Martha Stewart Living
Using recipes from her catering jobs and hosting tips she’d picked up along the way, Martha published her first book in 1982, aptly titled Entertaining.
The book’s success helped expose her to a wider audience, and in 1990, she launched Martha Stewart Living magazine, according to her website.
"By 1990, I was the 49-year-old mother of a grown daughter, a divorcée, and I knew that I was onto something big," Martha once said, according to MarthaStewart.com. "I've been dubbed a 'late bloomer,' and I love the moniker. I published the first issue of Martha Stewart Living that year, and have been pursuing my dreams ever since."
Just two years later, she began the syndicated half-hour television show Martha Stewart Living, bringing her unique blend of cooking, crafting, and creating into homes all across America.
As her star power grew, Martha added to her business efforts with best-selling books and a collection of housewares and bedding, Martha Stewart Everyday.
By 1999, her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, went public on the New York Stock Exchange.
In the decades that followed, Martha has earned 12 Emmy Awards, published 100 books, taken on numerous television projects — including NBC’s The Martha Stewart Show — opened a restaurant, expanded her brands of crafts, home goods, and furniture, launched The Martha Stewart Podcast and became Sports Illustrated’s oldest swimsuit cover model to date when she first graced the magazine’s pages in 2023.
“I have survived the rigors of time, of marriage, of childbearing, of building a business from scratch,” she told People in 2020 of the success. “I have survived very nicely, and I think I make the most of it.”
Martha Stewart’s Romantic History
Martha may have spent years building her globally recognized brand, but her life hasn’t been all work. The culinary whiz met former husband Andrew Stewart on a blind date in college and was drawn to the Yale law student’s “extremely serious” nature, per People.
After hitting it off, the pair married in 1961. In true Martha fashion, when she walked down the aisle, she wore a dress she made herself with her mother’s help, according to MarthaStewart.com.
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Four years later, the couple welcomed their only child, a daughter named Alexis. But the union wouldn’t last, and Martha and Andrew separated in 1987, officially divorcing three years later.
After her divorce, Martha was linked for 15 years to Microsoft billionaire Charles Simonyi in the 1990s and early 2000s. She referred to Simonyi in the Netflix documentary Martha as a “total genius.”
Simonyi even famously stood by her side in 2004 when she spent five months in prison for lying about a stock trade, People reported. After she was released in March of 2005, the couple resumed their romance, with Simonyi even sending a private jet to fly her back to her Beford, New York, home, but the relationship eventually ended in 2008.
While Martha told E! News in 2023 that she knew a “lot of eligible men,” she admitted that she has struggled to balance her thriving career and relationships.
"If I analyze my life, I think the work has taken precedence over the romance,” she told the outlet. “I have a hard time making room for both and it's not the highest priority that I have a boyfriend, but it would be nice!"
Martha Stewart’s Family
Martha is also a devoted mom and grandma, but admitted in Martha that parenting didn’t always come naturally to her, especially after growing up in a home herself where “feelings” weren’t openly discussed.
“How could I be a really great mother if I didn’t have the education to be a mother?” she asked.
Alexis, who is also a writer and television personality, joked in her own 2011 memoir, Whateverland: Learning to Live Here, that she “grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head,” and felt a constant pressure from her distant mom to be perfect, according to TODAY.
Yet, that same year, while promoting the book in an interview on the morning show, she referenced the tight bond the two share.
“We're incredibly close and we're both very opinionated people. So while we can be together having a nice time, we can also have an animated discussion-slash-argument about something. Because that's normal. So if we agree on everything, how boring would that be?" she shared.
Martha offered up her own thoughts on their unique mother-daughter dynamic during a 2020 interview with People.
"Our relationship has always been a difficult mother-daughter relationship," she shared. "Difficult, but she would do anything for me, and I would do anything for her."
Martha’s parenting journey may have had its ups and downs, but the one role she relishes is being a grandma to Alexis’ two children, Jude and Truman.
“Those kids are so smart, so lovely, so advanced,” she told TODAY in 2018, calling Alexis a “perfect mother.”
The proud grandma often boasts about her grandchildren on social media, whether it’s touting granddaughter Jude’s budding jewelry career or letting them help her blow out the candles on her birthday cake.
Martha Stewart’s Most Famous Recipes
Through the years, Martha has proved her prowess in the kitchen with one mouth-watering recipe after another, but there are some delectable dishes that hold a special place in the hearts of fans everywhere. Here are some of the recipes that became instant fan favorites:
Macaroni and Cheese
Martha’s famous macaroni and cheese recipe is the perfect blend of gooey cheddar and Gruyère cheeses and noodles. With a crunchy bread topping to finish it off, it’s no wonder it's become a staple for anyone looking to get their comfort food fix.
Mashed Potatoes with Cream Cheese
This is one recipe that’s actually credited to Martha’s mom, who was affectionately known by her family as “Big Martha.”
“Mashed potatoes with cream cheese are rich, and this recipe from Martha's mother, Mrs. Kostyra, is wonderfully rich and creamy,” the recipe notes. “It calls for just six ingredients, the main one being white or Yukon gold potatoes, cream cheese, a generous amount of butter, a little milk, and heavy cream. A mixer is used to whip the mixture into fluffy clouds for what is sure to be everyone's favorite side dish.”
Eggnog
Looking for a way to add some homemade holiday cheer? Try Martha’s famous eggnog, made with bourbon, cognac, dark rum, heavy cream, and a dozen eggs. The recipe, which she once noted was “so rich it needs no accompaniment,” was featured in her first cookbook, Entertaining.
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Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Mastering the chocolate chip cookie is no easy feat, but Martha managed to do it with ease with her soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe. It’s Martha’s most popular cookie recipe to date.
Perfect Roast Chicken
Win guests over with Martha’s perfect roast chicken recipe, which takes all the guesswork out of learning to master this classic recipe. It’s considered one of Martha’s “go-to” chicken dishes.
Martha Stewart’s Friendship with Snoop Dogg
From the outside, America’s perpetually prepared hosting icon may not have a lot in common with a rapper raised in Southern California, but that’s exactly why Martha and her bestie Snoop Dogg are the perfect pair.
For a full timeline of Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg's friendship, read our explainer on NBC Insider.
The unlikely duo first met in 2008 while making Martha’s mother’s famous mashed potato recipe on The Martha Stewart Show. Their hilarious banter in the segment — which was replicated once again in a follow-up segment the next year baking brownies together — set the stage for a decades-long friendship that has seen the pair hosting the Puppy Bowl, competing as a celebrity team on $100,000 Pyramid, and hosting their own show, Martha and Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party, which later added the word “Challenge” to the end of the title.
“I’ve never met anyone like Martha Stewart,” Snoop told Rolling Stone in 2016. “When we come together, it’s a natural combination of love, peace and harmony.”
When Martha kicked off her new podcast in 2022, it’s no surprise that Snoop was her very first guest.
"When you work with someone like Snoop, it's like having a sidekick. How great it is," Stewart told People of why the friendship just works. "That's why all the comedians have sidekicks and bands because it loosens them up and lets them be freer. Snoop is my freedom."
The pair took their friendship to new heights at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where they donned matching equestrian outfits to take in the dressage finals, and Martha hysterically tried (and failed) to get Snoop to taste French cuisine.
“I had a fantastic time at the Paris 2024 @olympics,” she later wrote on Instagram. “Worked with my friend @snoopdogg, toured the city of Paris, ate at delicious restaurants, and met lots of great people.”
To see Martha’s latest endeavor, watch Yes, Chef! when it premieres on Monday, April 28 at 10/9c on NBC, with episodes streaming on Peacock the next day.
