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 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
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