No matter what, Martha Stewart and her daughter have each other’s backs.
“Our relationship has always been a difficult mother-daughter relationship,” the entrepreneur and host told PEOPLE in 2020 of her daughter Alexis Stewart, her only child with ex-husband Andrew Stewart. – Difficult, but she would do anything for me, and I would do anything for her.
Alexis, who followed in her mother’s footsteps as a TV personality, said in her 2011 book that she “grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head” and that Martha had a “very unapproachable approach to parenting.”
Despite everything, the couple remains supportive of each other.
“She is herself,” Martha wrote in her daughter’s book. “She makes her own decisions. Sometimes I try to offer advice, but if she doesn’t take it, so be it. She really paid attention. She really knows how to do everything.”
Keep reading to find out all about Martha Stewart’s daughter, Alexis Stewart.
She was born in New York in 1965
Alexis Gilbert Stewart was born in New York City on September 27, 1965 to Martha and her then-husband Andrew Stewart. The couple had married about four years before when Martha was 19 years old. “It was very nice to be a mother, a wife, a working woman,” Martha later told Larry King during an appearance on Larry King live.Alexis grew up spending time in Manhattan and the Berkshires, Massachusetts, where the family had a home, before going to boarding school in Vermont.
She later attended Barnard College, her mother’s alma mater, where she majored in English.
Her parents divorced in 1990
Martha Stewart and Andrew Stewart. Arthur Schatz/Getty Images
Alexis’ parents Martha and Andrew were married for 29 years before they shocked friends by announcing they were separating in 1987 and officially divorced three years later.
According to a PEOPLE cover story published a few years after their breakup, Martha’s increasing fame contributed to the dissolution of their relationship.
While speaking with PEOPLE, Andrew listed their parenting dynamic as one of his regrets from the marriage.
“I think we did a bad job as parents,” he said. “We were too involved in our professional lives and fixing up the house. We always turned home into a mythological place. But it wasn’t home—we didn’t spend enough time with Lexi.”
Andrew added that he never had a chance to “discuss the separation with Alexis”, which led to their estrangement. “She saw her mother hurt and thought I didn’t care. One way or another, she got the facts wrong as well as the interpretation,” he said.
She made harsh claims about her childhood
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In 2011, Alexis published a comprehensive book, Whateverland: Learning to live here, which she co-wrote with Jennifer Koppelman Hutt. The memoir made scathing accusations about Alexis’ childhood, particularly her mother’s parenting style.
“Martha does everything better! You can’t win,” she wrote. “If I didn’t do something perfectly, I had to do it again. I grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head.”
When it comes to the holidays, Alexis said her mother is “not interested in being friends with kids.”
“She used to make me wrap my presents myself,” she recalled. “She would give me things just before Christmas and say, ‘Now wrap them up, but don’t look inside’.”
On Halloween: “There were no costumes. There was nothing. We turned off all the lights and pretended we weren’t home.”
Alexis also accused her mother of being a hoarder who takes a “very freewheeling approach to child-rearing” and wrote that she refused to buy her a bra when she hit puberty, among other things.
She and Martha are “incredibly close”
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By all accounts, Martha and Alexis’ relationship is full of ups and downs, but they still publicly support each other. Despite the accusations in Whateverland: Learning to live hereAlexis dedicated it to her mother, who even participated in the creation of the book.
In a 1995 PEOPLE cover story, a friend of Martha’s described her and Alexis’ relationship as cordial. “It’s hard being Martha Stewart’s daughter, and Alexis is very reserved,” he said. “But they’re really close, and Alexis hates it when people criticize Martha.”
While promoting her book in 2011, Alexis shared TodaySavannah Guthrie says she finds many quotes about her mother “taken out of context.”
“They’re funny,” she said. – Everyone has stories like this from their lives.
Alexis continued: “We’re incredibly close and we’re both very opinionated people. So even though we can be together and have a great time, we can also have a lively discussion about something. Because that’s normal. So if we agree on everything, how much would that was it boring?”
She learned to cook from her mother
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In a 2020 interview with PEOPLE, Martha Stewart said that starting her own business made being a parent difficult when Alexis was young, but that she and her daughter bonded over cooking.
“After I gave up stockbroking, I started catering at home, which took a lot of time,” she recalled. “One thing Alexis learned from that was how to cook. She’s a phenomenal cook and baker. I tried to get her involved in everything, but as soon as she could leave home and go to boarding school, she did.”
She was married to attorney John Cuti
In 1997, Alexis married attorney John Cuti in an intimate ceremony in New York with only five guests in attendance, as reported Chicago Tribune.
The couple separated in 2003 and divorced in 2004. Before their divorce was finalized, Cuti was a lawyer in his mother-in-law Martha’s insider trading case. In July 2004, she was sentenced to five months in prison, five months of house arrest and two years of supervised probation.
She spoke publicly about her fruitful journey
Before having children, Alexis underwent fertility treatments to get pregnant. In a performance at The Oprah Winfrey Show In 2007, three years after divorcing her ex-husband, she said she was spending up to $27,000 each month on IVF procedures and an additional $6,000 on medication.
At the time, Alexis had endured three failed embryo transfers, but she was still hopeful.
“When I have to think about my other options, then I will do it,” she said. “But right now I can only think of this option.”
She also pointed out that her mother “desperately” wanted grandchildren and provided her with financial and emotional support.
“I’m very supportive,” Alexis said. – He tells me that this will happen all the time.
She is the mother of two children
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In 2011, after five years of infertility treatment, Alexis gave birth to her first child at the age of 45, a daughter named Jude, who was born via gestational surrogate.
“Having Jude was a blessing,” she told PEOPLE at the time. “I’m happy, but this was hard.”
Almost exactly a year later, in 2012, Alexis gave birth to her second child, a son named Truman, via a gestational surrogate.
In celebration of Jude’s 12th birthday in March 2023, Martha shared a rare glimpse of her granddaughter.
“Five beauties get even prettier!” she captioned an Instagram photo showing Jude and her friends at a spa party, apparently hosted by Martha. “Jude turned twelve this week and had a SPARTY! Get it???”
In August 2023, Martha took to Instagram to share a sweet photo of herself and Jude looking at the moon.
“Jude Stewart and I on the upstairs terrace at four in the morning trying to capture the sturgeon moon on our and phones,” the proud grandmother wrote in the caption.
She had her own TV and radio shows
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From 2005 to 2010, Alexis co-hosted a radio talk show, Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer, along with Jennifer Hutt on SiriusXM’s Martha Stewart Living Radio channel. During the two-hour daily broadcast, the couple talked about various life topics, but also about their private life. The series later debuted as a TV show on the Hallmark Channel.
Alexis and the Hutt hosted another TV show together, Whatever, Martha, which aired for two seasons on the Fine Living network. In the program they made fun of old people Living Martha Stewart episodes and tried to withdraw their projects and recipes.
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