5 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Martha Stewart: How She Found Her Passion and More

Closer takes a look at five interesting things you might not know about Martha Stewart.

I Grew Up Poor: She’s a self-made billionaire, but Martha wasn’t raised in a wealthy household. As one of six children born to Polish-American parents in Nutley, N.J., she learned to garden at age 3 to help her family put food on the table. “My father instilled in me the importance of growing one’s own vegetables,” she says. “As soon as I had my own home, I started planting everything my family and I loved to eat.”

I Discovered My True Passion in Europe: At age 19, she wed publisher Andy Stewart, and the two set out on a five-month European honeymoon. “It did awaken in me a love of cuisine, a love of travel, a love of discovery,” says the lifestyle mogul, 83, the subject of a new Netflix documentary, Martha. “And I really felt, this is the thing I’d like to spend my life thinking about.”

My Marriage Was Complicated: After 29 years, Martha and Andy called it quits in 1990. While she admits she had one “brief affair” during their union, she says, “I don’t know how many girlfriends [Andy] had at this time, but I think there were quite a few.”

I Love Being a Grandma: Her daughter Alexis’ children, Truman and Jude, are Martha’s pride and joy. “They’re utterly fantastic,” she gushes. “I’ve taken them to the most unusual places in the world, and they’re only 12 and 13.”

Aging Doesn’t Scare Me: “I think people are more fabulous than they’ve ever been in their senior years, and I applaud every one of them,” says Martha, who at 81 posed for the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue. “How old I am, slowing down, retiring — I just don’t dwell on that.”