The 9 Most Interesting Things We Learned About Martha Stewart in the New Netflix Documentary, 'Martha'

Martha Stewart is nothing short of an icon. And the new Netflix documentary, simply titled Martha, is here to prove it — as it astutely begins, "To this day, you cannot take your eyes off Martha Stewart." 

For decades, people have loved her, hated her, and felt every emotion in between as the billion-dollar entrepreneur and hospitality icon made us feel simultaneously inspired and infuriated by her aspirational cooking and table setting and how easy she makes it all look. For an hour and fifty-three minutes, the documentary gets to the heart of it all and shows us that Martha Stewart, as Vice President Kamala Harris says best, is “not aspiring to be humble.” 

However, it appears Stewart isn't exactly a fan of how she was depicted, telling The New York Times that she specifically hated the ending scenes. "Those last scenes with me looking like a lonely old lady walking hunched over in the garden? Boy, I told him to get rid of those. And he refused. I hate those last scenes. Hate them,” she said. She also disliked the music, the camera angles, the fact that there's no mention of her grandchildren and that the documentary spends too much time on her court case and not enough on what makes the rest of her life so special. She is a perfectionist, after all.

But Stewart did at least enjoy the first half of the documentary. "It gets into things that many people don’t know anything about, which is what I like about it,” she told The Times. So, with that in mind, here are our eight favorite tidbits from Martha that prove she is one of the most fascinating women in the world. 

Her love of gardening came from her father

Stewart revealed in the documentary that her love of homemaking came from her father, Edward Kostyra, who taught all of his six children how to garden and sew. And according to Stewart, her acumen for it all made her the favorite child. But it wasn't all sunshine and roses with these homemaking tasks. Stewart's brother, Eric, explained that the gardening was done because their parents couldn't feed a family of eight, so instead, they grew what they could and traded crops for other goods. "He stood over you like a sergeant," Stewart admitted. The chores had the opposite effect on Eric, who shared, "To this day, I despise gardening."  

Stewart drew inspiration from the Old Dutch Masters

"Nothing store-bought. Everything homemade," Stewart declared about her catering goods. "We tried to be a little outrageous." 

To make her displays as "outrageous" as possible, Stewart says she drew inspiration from the Dutch masters, which, for the non-art history majors out there, refers to a "select group of European artists who achieved the pinnacle of their craft during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, roughly spanning from the 14th to the 18th century," M.S. Rau Antiques explained. "Celebrated for their exceptional technical skills, artistic innovation, and profound influence on the trajectory of art, Old Master works continue to serve as benchmarks of excellence, offering invaluable insights into the cultural, societal, and artistic landscapes of their eras." 

For Stewart, this meant emulating their "great displays of food and fruits," which "inspire me tremendously." And once others caught sight of this grandeur through her catering, Martha Inc. was born.

She's a woman of multitudes 

On Stewart’s honeymoon in Europe, she shared a cheeky little kiss with a man who wasn't her husband. As Stewart tells it, she left her husband to go for a tour of the Florence cathedral. She was so overwhelmed with emotion at the sight of the gorgeous church that she kissed a stranger. “I wish we all could experience such an evening," Stewart says in the documentary. 

And that's not the only love affair Stewart admitted to on film. "I had a very brief affair with a very attractive Irish man, and it was just nothing. It was nothing, in terms of — I would have never broken up a marriage for it," she said. Repeating again, "It was nothing. It was like a kiss in the Cathedral."

Her first book was almost printed in black and white

Alan Mirkin, president of Crown Publishing, shared in the documentary that "The first thing she did was make it pretty clear that this was going to be her book, and if we didn't do it the way she wanted to do it, she wasn't interested in working with us." That's because, according to Stewart, the team wanted to print her book in black and white even though she preferred it illustrated in color. "[I wanted] a book that anybody could pick up and learn how to have an interesting celebration." Thus, Entertaining, in all its colorful glory, was born.

Not everyone accepted her as a partner of Kmart

Martha Stewart's partnership with Kmart was an absolute revelation at the time, bringing everyone the chance to have a little stylish decor and cookware at an affordable price. "She understood that just because you don't have a lot of money doesn't mean you don't have taste," journalist Caitlin Flanagan comments in the documentary. However, according to Stewart, not everyone was a fan — especially her snobbiest friends. "The Greenwich Garden Club canceled my appearance because I had signed with Kmart, and they didn't want anything downscale," she revealed. While Stewart's Kmart deal is long gone, you can still buy her products at Home Depot, a partnership Stewart solidified just as her partnership with Kmart ended.

Martha Stewart Living was rejected by major publishers 

While Stewart was already a household name by the time she pitched the idea for a magazine, nobody seemed to want it. According to Stewart, she first went to Conde Nast, who said no. Then to Rupert Murdock, who said no. She then took it to Time Inc., and after a little convincing, Martha Stewart Living was finally published. The magazine, she said, "became an overnight sensation." And that's because Stewart saw something the men in publishing didn't: That women controlled budgets and household planning and wanted beautiful things. 

Additionally, Time, at first, didn't want her on TV either, as they thought it would cannibalize the magazine's readership. Stewart thought it was critical to be able to show women — especially working mothers — exactly how to do everyday DIY projects step by step. So because she was making so much from Kmart, Stewart was able to buy back her namesake magazine and then create Martha Stewart Living Enterprises all on her own. 

Justin Bieber was instrumental in Stewart's comeback and in how she met her BFF 

After her time in prison, Stewart made a rather unexpected appearance at The Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber.

"My publicist said, ‘This is a little bit out of your milieu, Martha.’ And my daughter said, 'Okay, mom, yeah, sure,'" she explained. Without watching a single roast before (other than the kind you put in the oven), Stewart went on to get some of the biggest laughs of the night — showing people she was both still a star and was in on the joke too, taking back all the power. It also happened to be when she met her BFF, Snoop Dogg. "She would be an upgrade for me, just to be in her presence," Snoop said. Stewart added of their friendship, "Melding cultures is a good thing."

Her kitchen is absolutely the goals you think it is

While Stewart's kitchen wasn't the focal point, the documentary gave us a glimpse into where she crafts all those famous meals — including where she made all her Covid-era TikToks. Yes, she really has copper pots everywhere. Yes, she has multiple fridges, approximately a bajillion cake stands, and all the equipment one would need to run a Michelin-starred restaurant. But all just for herself.

She's a (little) less obsessed with perfection

"I have always looked for voids," Stewart says at the end of the documentary. "You see a field, and you turn that field into a fantastic garden. You see a flower that shouldn't be there. You put something in its place that belongs. I don't want to put up with imperfection." However, Stewart's next comment was one we didn't see coming. "Although I've learned as one gets older, imperfections are a little more okay than they were when I was a little younger." She added with a chuckle, "I think imperfection is something that we can deal with."