How Martha Stewart makes and spends her millions, from building her media empire to owning a 156-acre estate in New York

Before she started a media empire, Martha Stewart worked as a stockbroker in New York City.

"It was not until I left Wall Street that I discovered my true entrepreneurial bent. I loved ideas. I loved building. I loved creating," Stewart wrote in a post on her website. "I loved making things that would enhance everyday living. And I loved making money as a result."

In 1976, Stewart left her career as a stockbroker to start her own catering company from her kitchen. She went on to become one of the most famous celebrity chefs in the business, with thriving home decor and furniture lines, cookbooks, and a media empire.

Martha published her first book, "Entertaining," in 1982. It quickly became a smashing success.

In 1977, Stewart and her catering business were hired to make the food for a book-release event. At the event, Stewart was introduced to Alan Mirken, the head of Crown Publishing Group, a subsidiary of Random House, at the time. The two got to talking, and Mirken encouraged Stewart to write a cookbook that included the recipes she used for her catering events. 

After "Entertaining" was published in 1982, it sold more than 625,000 copies, according to Entrepreneur. She has since published almost 100 cookbooks.

In 1997, Stewart borrowed $85 million to finance the acquisition of her magazine.

The first issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine was published in 1990 in partnership with Time Publishing Ventures.

Subscriptions to the magazine grew to over 2 million and, in 1991, Martha Stewart and Time launched Martha Stewart Living as a quarterly magazine. Soon, Time was publishing an issue of Martha Stewart Living every month. 

Stewart saw the value in owning all of her brands outright as part of the media conglomerate Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which she founded in 1996. 

When Stewart's media company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public in 1999, she became the first self-made female billionaire in the United States.

On the day her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, launched its initial public offering, stocks were priced at $18, but the stock tripled in value before closing. Stewart's 70% stake in the company was now worth more than a billion dollars.

Martha Stewart not only became an instant billionaire but America's first self-made female billionaire.

"Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public in 1999," she told People in 2020. "I was the first self-made female billionaire. I had opposition, and that kind of opposition to a woman-built business was really outrageous. Even my own lawyers were negative about the possibility of success. I remember one lawyer sending me an orchid, saying, 'Oh, you did it. Wow. What a surprise.' What a piece of garbage that guy is."

Oprah Winfrey, another lifestyle icon, became a billionaire just a few years after Stewart, in 2003. 

In 2015, Stewart sold Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which includes her branded products and magazine, to Sequential Brands Group for $353 million.

After the sale, Stewart continued to receive a salary reported to be upwards of $6 million in 2017, according to the New York Post. Her salary included $406,941 for "non-business" travel, $114,620 for "utilities and telecommunication services," and $146,880 tied to "personal fitness, wellness, beauty, and wardrobe."

In 2019, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia was sold for $215 million to Marquee Brands, according to Forbes.

Martha Stewart lost her billionaire status in 2002 after the price of her company's stock dropped.

According to Forbes, Stewart's stock briefly went up after she was convicted of three felony charges in 2004 and spent five months in prison. She was also fined $30,000.

In 2004, Stewart was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, two counts of making false statements, and one count of obstruction of agency proceedings, and she spent five months in a minimum-security prison, followed by five months of home confinement.

The charges stemmed from an incident in December 2001: After receiving information that was not publicly available, she sold off her ImClone Systems shares a day before their value plunged, avoiding a loss of more than $45,000, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Prosecutors said she later lied about receiving the tip-off, according to an Associated Press report.

In 2017, she called the experience of prison a "very, very awful thing."

"It's not a good experience and it doesn't make you stronger. I was a strong person to start with and thank heavens I was. And I can still hold my head up high and know that I'm fine," she told Katie Couric.

However, Stewart's sentence had a surprising effect while she was serving her time — she even became a billionaire again. But she lost the title again when she was released.

Over the years, Stewart has made a fortune from her many business ventures.

Stewart has her hand in a variety of industries, from a CBD gummy brand to a wine partnership with 19 Crimes and various home accessory, improvement, and furniture lines with department stores like Sears, Kmart, Home Depot, and more.

In 2021, Forbes reported that Stewart's brands pull in roughly $900 million in combined retail sales annually and her branded products can already be found in more than 70 million households.

Forbes also estimated that Stewart's kitchen-goods brand, Martha Stewart Kitchen, would bring in as much as $1 billion by 2025.

Stewart has also starred in popular television shows, from "The Martha Stewart Show" to "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party."

According to the New York Post, Stewart was paid $1 million for the first season of "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party."

Stewart recently opened her own restaurant, The Bedford, at the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The restaurant has been criticized for its high price tags — the roast chicken entrée costs a whopping $90.

Reviews have also been mixed, with one New York Times reporter writing, "The Bedford is decent enough that it will probably make money for the Paris and Marquee Brands, but it's ho-hum enough that it just might dim Ms. Stewart's reputation for dazzling competence in everything she touches."

Martha Stewart has a real-estate portfolio worth millions of dollars.

Stewart's primary residence is an extensive 156-acre farm in Bedford, New York, that she purchased for $15.2 million in 2000. The Westchester County town of Bedford is about an hour's drive north of Manhattan and is considered one of the richest communities in America.

There are seven houses in total on the property, with Stewart residing in a three-story home that she calls the "Winter House." In addition to Stewart's residence, there is a circa-1770 Colonial home called the "Summer House," a tenant cottage, a guest house, stables, tennis courts, and a swimming pool on the property.

Stewart is also known to summer at her 63-acre estate in Seal Harbor, Maine, which she calls her "favorite place," according to Architectural Digest.

Completed in 1925, the home was originally built for Edsel Ford of the Ford automotive family. It remained in the Ford family's ownership until Stewart purchased the property, which includes a grand 12-bedroom house, in 1997.

Stewart also owns two homes in New York City: one on Perry Street in the West Village and another on Fifth Avenue. 

Stewart and her then-husband bought their first house together for $80,750 in 1970. It sold decades later for $6.7 million.

The three-bedroom house was built in 1805 and featured two greenhouses, a carriage house for guests, a "party barn" with a sleeping loft, expansive gardens, and a heated outdoor swimming pool.

When the home hit the market in 2006, it listed at nearly $9 million, according to The New York Times. It eventually sold to a private buyer for $6.7 million, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2007.

She sold her East Hamptons home on Lily Pond Lane for $16.5 million in 2021.

Stewart paid just $1.7 million for the one-acre property in 1991, following her divorce from Andrew Stewart.

Stewart raises peacocks, chickens, cows, geese, miniature donkeys, pigeons, and horses on her farm.

Horses are known to be expensive to raise, and the price of peacocks ranges from $40 to $300 each. Given that Stewart owned more than 20 peacocks on her farm before six were killed in July 2022, it can be assumed that Stewart paid a small fortune for all of her beloved animals. 

Though she's no longer a billionaire, Martha Stewart continues to live a very luxurious life.

Stewart has shared photos of pasta dinners topped with caviar and luxe vacations in tropical locales, showing that she knows how to live it large.