Inside Martha Stewart’s Dramatic Downfall and Ultimate Comeback: The ‘B*tch Hunt’ That Sent Her to Prison

Martha Stewart’s career took a staggering nosedive when she was convicted on obstruction and conspiracy charges related to a stock sale, landing her in prison. The new Netflix documentary Martha explores the 2004 trial that some critics famously called a “bitch hunt.” Stewart’s rise to fame and brutal fall unfolds through intimate accounts, showcasing her journey from lifestyle icon to convicted felon—and her ultimate comeback.

The film offers a close look at the pressures Stewart faced, striving to build her brand with uncompromising standards. “Everything she was going to do was going to be perfectly perfect,” Stewart’s longtime friend Kathy Tatlock says. “And I think in a way, it ruined her life.” Stewart’s intense focus on perfection may have fueled her empire, but it also became a source of turmoil.

Before her fall from grace, Stewart had already navigated personal challenges. Her marriage to publisher Andy Stewart ended in 1990 after nearly three decades. “After Andy left, I really lost myself in work,” Martha shares in the documentary. By the late 1990s, her relentless dedication had built Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia into a billion-dollar empire. “She was like a superstar,” recalls attorney Allen Grubman. Yet, her meteoric success was soon to be shaken by a single phone call.

In 2001, during a layover en route to Cabo, Stewart received a call about a friend’s biotech stock. Acting on the tip, she sold her shares—an action that would later land her in hot water during an insider trading investigation. In Martha, she recalls the moment the verdict was delivered: “Guilty, guilty, guilty on all these counts of whatever,” she says, revisiting the shock of the courtroom. Her daughter, Alexis, was so overwhelmed by the verdict that she fainted. “Poor child,” Stewart reflects, noting how the scandal affected those closest to her. Alexis remembers the horror vividly: “It was so horrifying and incomprehensible. And then I woke up and was, unfortunately, still there.”

Stewart’s conviction and subsequent sentencing brought more than personal anguish. She describes her view on the prosecution’s zeal with pointed humor: “Those prosecutors should have been put in a Cuisinart and turned on high. I was a trophy for those idiots.” The fallout hit her business hard, as Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s stock plunged, and Stewart was forced to step down from the board. The financial losses were colossal—she estimates more than a billion dollars vanished amid the scandal. She reported to Alderson Federal Prison Camp, where she served five months.

Yet, Stewart’s prison stint became an unlikely turning point. Far from being the end, it marked a new beginning. After her release, she found unexpected ways to reinvent herself. In 2015, eleven years post-prison, Stewart joined a Comedy Central roast for Justin Bieber, where she surprised everyone by roasting her fellow comedians as sharply as she’d rebuilt her brand. Sitting next to Snoop Dogg at the roast led to a friendship and a new public persona; the pair soon collaborated on Bic lighter ads and a cooking show, showing Stewart in a playful, self-deprecating light few had seen before.

“She had lived before that, being worried about what people thought of her, and then the worst thing that could possibly happen happened. And she survived it,” says Isolde Motley, founding editor of Martha Stewart Living. “She had been set free by going to prison.”

Martha offers viewers an unvarnished look at Stewart’s resilience. From her trials and loss to a hard-won liberation, Stewart emerged from her experience with a new, liberated sense of self, showing the world that even the greatest falls can lead to spectacular comebacks.