While Martha remains prominently in the public eye,
her ex-husband has managed to avoid much media attention in the last few decades
as the couple's infamous divorce slowly fades from public consciousness.
We took a look at the Stewart's love story to uncover the truth about Andrew Stewart.
Andrew Stewart met Martha when he was 23 years old and studying law at Yale.
Martha was a professional model, working on the side while she earned a degree in European
history and architectural history at Barnard College. The two were set up on a blind date,
and years later, Martha told New York Magazine that the soon-to-be star couple
fell in love. Just a year later, in July of 1961, they were married.
In 1965, Martha Stewart and Andrew had their first and only child, Alexis Stewart. Stewart was raised
in New York City, and according to her bombshell 2011 book Whateverland: Learning to Live Here,
Alexis' childhood was not the domestic dream of her mother's magazines and television sets.
Writing in her book, Alexis had this to say about her childhood:
"I grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head."
Though she didn't get along well with her parents,
Alexis admitted that her own cynical disposition was in part to blame for the tension between them.
Still, that didn't stop her from writing an entire book about her mother's, quote,
"very hands-off approach to child rearing." Alexis even claimed that Martha hated holidays,
shattering the famous hostess' cheery persona. In her book, Alexis Stewart recalled,
"Halloween was also a grim affair: There were no costumes. There was
no anything. We turned off all the lights and pretended we weren't home."
In Jerry Oppenheimer's book, Just Desserts, published in 1997, he spoke with several of
Martha and Andrew's close friends who claimed that the Stewarts' marriage was far less idyllic than
their glossy magazine photographs made it seem. Martha allegedly berated her husband constantly,
and former staff at the Stewart's home in Westport, Connecticut,
said she treated him, quote, "like a dog turd." Writing in his book, Oppenheimer revealed:
"She was constantly accusing him of being 'dumb'
or 'stupid.' [...] There were times when there was utter and complete tension and
long hostility-filled silences between them that you could cut with a knife."
Despite how the couple was portrayed in the media, apparently Martha could
be quite a tyrant — and who better to take it out on than the man who most adored her?
Despite Martha Stewart's alleged cruelty toward her husband, her divorce from Andy Stewart was an
emotionally taxing experience. Mariana Pasternak, an old friend of Martha's, said Martha was a bit
of a maneater in the years following the couple's split. As Pasternak told the New York Post,
Martha sought attention from men post-divorce in order to prove to herself that she was desirable.
Andy was known as the "brains" behind Martha's early professional success,
and when they divorced after 29 years together, Andy started dating,
and eventually married, Martha's former kitchen assistant, creating more heartache for Martha.
Andrew and Martha Stewart had enough marital problems to fuel several divorces. Perhaps at
the top of the list, however, is their individual acts of infidelity. Once, at one of many parties
the Stewarts hosted and attended, Martha flirted with Andy's colleague. She sat on his lap,
and according to Jerry Oppenheimer's book, there was a lot of chemistry between the two of them.
"Stop telling people you and I aren't dating."
Another time, when Martha and Andrew were fighting, Martha admitted to sleeping with another
man while on a business trip. Jerry Oppenheimer relayed the argument in Just Desserts, claiming
that Andy was shocked and upset, while Martha brushed it off as though it wasn't a big deal.
"I thought he was much older and he turned out to be like my daughter's age and that was not,
that wasn't so cool. I… I… I didn't go for that. Actually, I did go for it.”
But Andy also cheated on Martha. Oppenheimer wrote about one instance in which the couple
had an argument that resulted in Andy claiming that it wasn't just Martha who
had had an affair — they had apparently both been unfaithful to one another.
Andy Stewart revealed to People that he regrets the way he and Martha raised their only child,
Alexis, telling the outlet:
"I think we did a poor job as parents. We were too involved in our professional
lives and fixing up the house. We didn't spend enough time with Lexi."
Unfortunately, both Alexis' parents have suffered the consequences of their early neglect.
Alexis didn't speak to her father for years, and her book, Whateverland:
Learning to Live Here, shared some of Martha's worst antics with the world.
Still, Alexis was apparently closer with her mother than her father, and despite the turmoil
between the two women, Alexis frequently defends her mother when critics attack her.
On the other hand, Alexis had difficulty reconciling with her father. According to
family friends, Alexis blamed her father for leaving and initiating the divorce.
Andrew Stewart received a degree in law from Yale but only spent a few years as
a lawyer before moving on to the publishing world.
New York Magazine reported that he worked as a corporate lawyer at the Times-Mirror Corporation
at around the same time Martha was starting Martha Stewart, Inc.
After a few years at the firm, Andy moved to the publishing side of the company, a role he
maintained as his career progressed. Eventually, he became president of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,
the publishing company now known as Abrams Books. The publishing house specializes in art,
illustrated, and children's books — the Stewart's careers complemented each other well.
Later, Stewart moved on to form his own publishing house,
Stewart, Tabori & Chang. They published a similar style of books as Harry N. Abrams,
and the two companies ultimately combined to become the Abrams Books that exists today.
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