After Martha Stewart participated in a brand new Netflix documentary about her life and profession, her ex-husband, Andy Stewart, issued an announcement, saying he’s lengthy moved on from his “painful and abusive” marriage to the life-style mogul, whereas slamming her for publicly discussing the affairs that permit to their divorce, which turned remaining 34 years in the past.
“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,” learn the assertion, which was written and signed by each Andy Stewart and his present spouse Shyla Stewart.
The assertion went up on Fb earlier than the documentary was launched on Netflix final week, however the assertion started circulating on-line on Thursday. The documentary is directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker R.J. Cutler. In it, the 83-year-old media icon opened up about a number of the darkish non-public instances in her outwardly polished and completed life, based on The Minimize.
Stewart talked concerning the ache of her ex-husband’s infidelity and their subsequent divorce, whereas admitting that she cheated, too, and greater than as soon as. She additionally shared how a lot she struggled as a younger mom, and she or he revisited her insider-training scandal within the early 2000s, which landed her in federal jail for 5 months.
For Stewart followers, the revelations about her lengthy and sad marriage to Andy Stewart might not appear so new. In response to Stewart lore, she married him in 1961 when she was 19 and he was 24, after assembly him via his sister, who was certainly one of her classmates at Barnard. On the time, Andy Stewart was finding out legislation at Yale, although he finally went into e book publishing.
Some accounts say that the wedding labored properly at first, with the 2 dwelling in Manhattan throughout the week, the place Stewart “raised orchids in the bathtub,” Individuals journal reported in 1995. In the course of the weekends, they restored a schoolhouse within the Berkshires, the place they have been supposedly doing the “back-to-the-land thing.”
However in her documentary, Stewart admitted that the warning indicators appeared as early as their five-month honeymoon in Europe, The Minimize reported. Whereas staying in Florence, Stewart mentioned she kissed a stranger she met on the Duomo whereas her groom was again on the lodge.
“It was neither naughty nor unfaithful,” Stewart mentioned of the kiss. “It was just emotional, of the moment. That’s how I looked at it. And it was exciting. I wish we could all experience such an evening.”
Within the documentary, Stewart additionally opened up about her struggles with being a younger mom to their daughter Alexis, who was born in 1965, The Minimize reported. “Turns out it’s not natural at all to be a mother,” Stewart mentioned, explaining her discomfort with having a baby whereas she herself was so younger.
“There was not a lot of affection in our house,” Stewart additionally mentioned of rising up, based on The Minimize. “How could I be a really great mother, if I didn’t have the education to be a mother?”
After Stewart labored for a number of years on Wall Road as a stockbroker, she began a catering enterprise, which might develop into the idea for her way of life empire. As she turned extra profitable, her already rocky marriage reportedly received worse, based on accounts. As early as 1980, about seven years earlier than they separated, Andy Stewart advised Individuals journal that his perfectionist spouse was “not tolerant of my negligence or my foolishness or my eccentricities.”
In 1995, one of many couple’s former mates advised Those who Andy Stewart was “always being belittled or berated by her.” An unauthorized 1997 biography of Stewart by Jerry Oppenheimer reported that each Martha and Andy Stewart cheated, The Minimize reported.
Within the documentary, Stewart instructed that the infidelity experiences have been true. “I don’t know how many different girlfriends he had, but I think there were quite a few,” Stewart mentioned. She additionally admitted that she had “a very brief affair with a very attractive Irishman” early on of their marriage, which she waves off as “nothing.”
Stewart added, “I would have never broken up a marriage for it. It was like the kiss in that cathedral.”
The documentary producers challenged Stewart on digital camera by saying that Andy Stewart claims he didn’t cheat on her, till she advised him about her personal affair, The Minimize reported. She disregarded this declare, saying, “Oh, well, that’s not true, I don’t think.”
Andy and Shyla Stewart tried to counter Stewart’s portrayal of him of their Fb put up, which described him as a “brilliant publisher, avocational naturalist and nature photographer.” Shyla Stewart additionally mentioned her husband is “one of the gentlest, most soft-spoken, kind-hearted men” she’s even recognized. The assertion moreover mentioned that the couple have “built a life of beauty, meaning, productivity and purpose,” which they share with “a beautiful, blended family” of 5 grownup kids and three “adorable” grandchildren.
They contrasted Andy Stewart’s “painful” life with Martha Stewart with the “joy-filled, purpose-led” existence he has now. “Every day, we openly express our gratitude for our love and for our life together,” the assertion mentioned. The couple closed their assertion by wishing his ex-wife and everybody else “the experience of loving and being loved deeply and fully, and the peace that comes from such a love.”
In the meantime, it seems that Stewart might not have discovered a lot peace from taking part within the documentary. In a telephone interview with the New York Occasions final week, she, too, lashed into facets of the documentary, however for various causes than her ex-husband.
The famously exacting media persona criticized the filmmakers for selecting unflattering digital camera angles of her and referred to as the movie’s second half “a bit lazy.”
“Those last scenes with me looking like a lonely old lady walking hunched over in the garden?” Stewart mentioned. “Boy, I told him to get rid of those. And he refused. I hate those last scenes. Hate them.”
