Some salty words for Oprah, and a sick burn for Blake Lively.
Martha Stewart doesn’t mince her words with these celebrities!
The rivalry between Gwyneth Paltrow and Martha Stewart has spanned nearly a decade. It all
started in 2013 when Stewart was asked for her opinion of Paltrow's lifestyle
brand Goop on Bloomberg TV. Stewart delivered some incredibly passive-aggressive platitudes,
allowing viewers to read between the lines about how she really felt.
"She must be doing something right. She's a charming, pretty person."
However, the floodgates didn't open until the fall of 2014 when Stewart told Porter Magazine,
"Paltrow needs to be quiet [...] If she were confident in her acting,
she wouldn't be trying to be the next Martha Stewart."
Rather than sitting back,
Paltrow appeared to fuel the fires at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit when she said,
"I am so psyched that she sees us as competition."
Shortly after, Stewart released a food spread in her magazine titled "Conscious Coupling." This,
of course, was a play on the term "conscious uncoupling," which was
famously coined by Paltrow to describe her public divorce from Chris Martin.
Paltrow threw it right back in Stewart's face by publishing
a recipe on Goop the next month called "Jailbird Cake." In 2017,
the feud showed no signs of stopping when Stewart appeared on "Watch What Happens Live."
In response to a question regarding the problems Goop was facing regarding
false health claims it allegedly made about its products, Stewart replied,
"Who's Goop?"
Even though the feud seems to have fizzled since then, it lives in infamy as a public
display of celebrity shadiness that would make Mariah Carey proud.
"I don't know her."
Ina Garten is arguably one of the biggest queens in the home
cooking and party-throwing game. Even her style is all her own,
from the signature popped collar to swoopy bangs and that everlasting shoulder-length bob.
Therefore, it makes sense that two of the biggest names in home-making and no-bull taking
entered into a small feud. What started it all was an Instagram post by Reese
Witherspoon documenting her super healthy pandemic morning rituals.
Being the relatable gem that she is, Garten commented with her own rituals,
which included drinking more cosmos, staying up late to watch good TV,
doing Sudokus in bed, and spending time with people she loves.
Stewart was not thrilled with Garten's lighthearted comment and told People,
"I do not agree about taking to drink to cope with things like
the pandemic [...] To me that's not charming."
Despite the fact that Stewart has her own Chardonnay in the 19 Crimes Wine Collection,
she is not a big drinker. Garten has yet to clap back at Stewart,
but she's only been complimentary about the lifestyle mogul.
In a 2017 appearance on the "How to Be Amazing with Michael Ian Black" podcast,
Garten said of Stewart:
"I think she did something really important,
which is that she took something that wasn’t valued, which is home arts,
and raised it to a level that people were proud to do it and that completely changed the landscape."
Piper Kerman wrote "Orange Is the New Black," the book on which the Netflix hit is based,
telling the true story of her time in a women's correctional facility.
As well as both serving time in prison, Kerman and Stewart have another interesting connection,
and that's the correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut.
While Stewart never actually joined Kerman at the prison, she did ask the judge in her case
to send her there. Ultimately, she was sent to West Virginia, but that didn't stop the show
from introducing a character that was clearly based on the lifestyle guru in its third season.
Seemingly, Stewart wasn't a fan of the series at all, even criticizing
lead star Taylor Schilling's performance in it. She told Porter magazine in 2014,
"They could have done that so much better. That girl is not good enough,
the lead actress [...] I met the real Piper [Kerman]. She was in
prison either the same time or after me, and I talked to her about it."
During her appearance on Chelsea Handler's Netflix show in 2016,
Stewart doubled-down on her dislike of the series, saying,
"When you live through something like 'Orange Is the New Black,'
the characters actually, the real characters are better."
Rachael Ray has been charming people with her successful daytime cooking program,
best-selling cookbooks, and lifestyle magazine for years. However,
not everyone is a fan of Ray's bubbly personality and delicious recipes.
In fact, Martha Stewart dissed Ray on "Nightline" in more ways than one, saying,
"She just did a new cookbook which is just a re-edit of a lot of her old
recipes, and that's not good enough for me."
Stewart also dragged Ray's cooking skills through the mud, saying,
"She's different [...] she's more of an entertainer than she is,
with her bubbly personality, than she is a teacher, like me."
Ray took the upper hand when asked to comment on the feud, telling ABC News,
"I really just think she's being honest. She does have a better skill set than I do."
"When it comes to producing a
beautiful, perfect, high quality meal. I'd rather eat Martha's than mine, too.”
In 2005, Martha Stewart hosted the short-lived "Apprentice" spin-off, "The Apprentice: Martha
Stewart," which aired alongside Donald Trump's version. During an interview with Newsweek,
Stewart revealed that the two shows were not supposed to air at the same time, and that
"The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" was meant to start out with Stewart firing Trump as host.
"I was supposed to fire him on air."
However, the jabs didn't stop there. Per CNN Money,
Trump wrote a public letter to Stewart accusing her of lying and bashing her performance, writing,
"I knew it would fail as soon as I first saw it."
Sadly, Stewart's spin-off was cut after the first season, and the feud between the pair continued
for years after. However, by 2016, Stewart appeared to be over it, telling Chicago Inc.,
"I sent my congratulations to the Trump family,
and I think they have an opportunity — let's see how they do with it. I'm excited."
Bethenny Frankel is now considered "Real Housewives of New York" royalty.
But back in 2005, Frankel competed on Martha Stewart's edition of "The Apprentice."
Stewart appeared to criticize Frankel on the show, telling her,
"You’re spunky, you’re a show-off, you feel you have to make a physical impression."
"I felt like you didn't like me. To be honest with you"
"Well you weren't so likeable then."
This isn't the only time Stewart seemingly ripped into Frankel,
either. During an appearance on Frankel's talk show "Bethenny," Stewart was candid about why
the Housewife didn't win her season of "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart."
"You were a pest. You were. She was." *Martha laughs*
The final straw came in 2015, when Stewart made a pointed dig at Frankel's Skinnygirl brand.
During an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," Frankel revealed
that she'd given up on trying to impress Stewart, saying,
"She just never misses the opportunity to say something negative about me or my products."
Behind every powerful woman lies an equally powerful frenemy. This person is someone you
don't necessarily want to see fail, but who is always one step behind or ahead of you.
According to a Forbes expose, Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart are just that.
Both are powerful and successful women who have followed similar strategies toward success by
having larger-than-life personalities, TV shows, and magazine publications.
Their relationship has always been seen as a friendly rivalry
until Stewart appeared on Winfrey's show in 2010 and words turned into knives.
On the show, Stewart and Winfrey discussed heavy topics like Stewart's time in prison,
which included visits from many friends and celebrities like Rosie O'Donnell.
Pondering why Winfrey never visited her, Stewart twisted the sword a little deeper, saying,
"I knew you were too busy."
When Winfrey asked if Stewart had received her letters in prison,
the lifestyle queen responded with a curt thank you after saying,
"I got little notes wishing me well."
Although Stewart seemingly still held resentment over Winfrey's absence during a difficult time,
the pair seemingly have a cordial relationship. In 2015, Stewart even posted a throwback photo of
the two together on Instagram, asking followers to guess which year it was taken. It seems that
their tiff resolves the way many do, and that's with time and mutual lingering resentment.
Even though he isn't an A-list celebrity like his famous friends, Jonathan Cheban was met with
Martha Stewart's shade at a dinner party in Cannes back in 2016. As Kim Kardashian's longtime best
friend, Cheban has made regular appearances on their reality TV show over the years.
In 2019, Cheban legally changed his name to Foodgod as part of a rebrand.
With more than 3.8 million Instagram followers, Cheban showcases his brand
by eating out literally every day and chronicling those meals for his fans.
However, back in 2016, he was still Kim Kardashian's sidekick,
and Stewart didn't appear to be all that familiar with the reality show.
She was seated next to Cheban at dinner, and because she didn't know who he was,
she decided to ask Twitter. Stewart later tweeted a better picture after discovering his identity,
still not completely reassured that his fame was as inflated as he claimed. It just goes to
show you, that if you try to make yourself look as famous as Martha Stewart, chances are you'll fail.
The problems apparently started in 2014
when Blake Lively decided to launch a Martha Stewart-style lifestyle blog called Preserve.
"But what's important in Preserve is it's very much about family."
During a HuffPost interview, Stewart was asked how she felt
about Lively's new venture, to which she replied,
"Let her try. …I don't mean that facetiously! … I mean, it's stupid,
she could be an actress! Why would you want to be me if you could be an actress? I just did
a movie yesterday, though -- I can't even tell you about it -- but I want to be Blake Lively."
Much like her comments about Paltrow's Goop, Stewart appeared to think Lively should stay
in her lane. Nevertheless, Lively has always been a huge Martha Stewart fan
and responded to the remarks extremely graciously. During an interview with E! News, Lively said,
"I want to have my own path professionally and even as she said,
I'm an actress [...] I'm doing something totally different so now I sort of
have two careers going on and it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out."
The two would go on to appear together on a panel for Stewart's American Made event in 2014,
but Lively decided to shut down her blog the following year.
A writer and entrepreneur, Sheryl Sandberg served as the chief operating officer at Meta,
formerly known as Facebook, from 2008 to 2022.
As a result, she is one of the wealthiest self-made women in America, per Forbes.
Her 2013 book "Lean In" is an eye-opening look into women in the workforce that provides advice
on overcoming gender differences. The book was both widely acclaimed and criticized,
especially by the queen of criticism herself.
When Martha Stewart was asked about the book in an interview,
she said that women place excessive focus on fighting workplace barriers, remarking,
"Isn't 'leaning in' spending a lot of time? [...] I think being entrepreneurial is
something women should strive for, rather than working up the corporate ladder."
Stewart's response is no surprise given her previously expressed views on modern-day feminism.
In a 2010 interview with The New York Times Magazine, she noted that she did not consider
herself to be a feminist, nor did she spend time contemplating obstacles in her way. Instead,
she revealed that her focus has always been on developing original ideas for her brand. Sandberg
has yet to clap back at Stewart's comments, and in all actuality, she's likely unfazed by them.