Martha Stewart brands ex-husband a ‘jerk’ after unexpected contact decades on from divorce

Martha Stewart opened up about her strained relationship with her ex-husband, Andrew Stewart, following the release of her 2024 documentary, Martha, which touched on their 29-year marriage.

The couple were introduced by Martha’s college classmate and Andrew’s sister, and went on to marry in 1961 and welcome their daughter, Alexis, four years later. 

Martha and Andrew went their separate ways in 1990, and the TV personality admitted that she hadn’t heard from him in more than 20 years before he contacted her in 2024.

No love lost

Martha told People that she heard from Andrew “only legally” in the wake of the documentary’s premiere, explaining that he wanted “to remind me of divorce settlement statements, which I had never read”.

“I mean, who cared after two years of arguing about a settlement? I still haven’t read it. He’s a jerk,” she declared. 

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The publication confirmed that Alexis is also not in contact with her father, who shares five children with his third wife, Shyla Nelson.

However, their marriage wasn’t all bad, as Martha shared in the interview. “Oh, I was madly in love,” she said. “Of course I have very fond memories. We were a very fine couple. Wherever we went, we were the couple.”

Dating in her 80s

As for her current dating life, the 85-year-old said that she no longer felt a pull to be married. “The older you get, the less you really need a mate, I think. I wouldn’t want to be beleaguered with an older, ill person,” she said.

“I have lots of friends. I’m not a lonely person. I have a very, very full – oh, probably too full! – life. I go out on… I don’t know if you call them dates or not, but I go out.”

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A turbulent marriage

Martha’s 2024 documentary shared rare insight into her marriage to Andrew, which she claimed was plagued by infidelity on both sides.

“He treated me really badly, and, in return, I guess I treated him badly,” Martha said, before claiming that he was “running off with people”. The star then admitted to cheating on her husband on their honeymoon in Florence, Italy, when she kissed a stranger at a cathedral.

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“I met this very handsome guy. He didn’t know I was married,” she recalled in the documentary. “He was emotional, I was emotional. It’s just because it was an emotional place. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced.”

She also had “a very brief affair with a very attractive Irish man” in the early days of their marriage. “I don’t think Andy ever knew about that,” she said. “It was nothing. In terms of I would have never broken up a marriage for it. It was nothing. It was like the kiss in the cathedral.”

Andrew’s reaction

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Andrew and his wife slammed the documentary in a Facebook post, claiming it was “sensationalized” and that he had moved on with his life. “Prior to this happy chapter of his life, Andy had some dark ones, including a painful and abusive marriage to Martha,” Shyla wrote. 

“While Andy quietly moved on and forward with his life, it appears that Martha continues to publicly relitigate the marriage, including comments in a sensationalized trailer for an upcoming documentary on Netflix.”