Despite the Waspy looks and name, Martha Stewart was born Martha Kostyra, one of six children of middle-class Polish parents. She grew up in modest circumstances in Nutley, N.J., and put herself through Barnard College by modeling. Realizing that contemporary women don't have the time to make the bed, much less bake a pie, the former model stockbroker/caterer devised a small empire — lavish cookbooks, a magazine, a K-Mart contract, and a television show — based on insanely elaborate, time intensive homemaking fantasies.

Her audience proved insatiable. But not everything was perfect for Martha: her 29-year marriage to Andy Stewart ended in a bitter divorce in 1990, with her husband obtaining a court order to prevent Martha from speaking to him or his family.

 

In 1993, he married Martha's former assistant, who happens to be 21 years his junior. She has one daughter from her ex-husband, Alexis and her current companion is Charles Simonyi, who is a  Microsoft billionaire.

 

During the 2003 year unfortunately she was a target of a federal probe involving insider trading violations from the SEC and is facing a criminal indictment at this time and has not been seen in the limelight much since these problems occurred