There’s a reason Martha Stewart doesn’t have a private jet like some of her lifestyle mogul contemporaries, and it traces back to her insider trading-related legal troubles over 20 years ago.
Sitting with MasterClass’ inaugural “Other People’s Business” podcast on Tuesday, Stewart revealed that she lost “about a billion dollars” in the legal turmoil of her 2004 conviction on felony counts of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and two counts of making false statements.
“Why don’t you think that you have a private jet?,” host and MasterClass founder and CEO David Rogier asked after Stewart said Kim Kardashian doesn’t need her business advice, considering “she’s flying around in a G5.”
“Because I fell in a hole,” Stewart admitted. “And I lost about a billion dollars in my legal problems. The lawyers took me to the cleaners and they were horrible.”
She otherwise remained tight-lipped on the details of that fallout, but teased that there’s more to come in her forthcoming autobiography.
“I’m writing about that in my autobiography, I can’t wait,” she said. “I’m whetting the appetite on this show.”
“But I’m back,” she assured of her current finances. “I’m pretty good.”
Watch the full “Other People’s Business” episode below:
Stewart first broke the news of a forthcoming autobiography in October 2024, riding the buzz off her Netflix documentary, “Martha,” from filmmaker R.J. Cutler.
“I call it an autobiography. It’s not exactly a memoir. It’s a fun book and all the wonderful, wonderful things I’ve done in my life and all the stories. Nothing has told the story yet,” she teased on “Today” at the time, sharing that the book is in the works at Random House. (“I just signed the contract as we speak.”)
Stirring more buzz for the tell-all later that year, Stewart told “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon that it would bare even more of her story than Cutler’s documentary treatment.
“That’ll be even more revealing,” she said. “Watch out. You don’t know what I’ll say about you.”
Watch Stewart’s full interview with MasterClass in the video above.
