Martha Stewart built a business empire that made her America’s first self-made female billionaire, but a since-deleted Halloween photo has put her estimated $400 million net worth under a different kind of spotlight. The 85-year-old lifestyle mogul dressed as a homeless person for Halloween, holding a sign that read “I AM HUNGRY HELP ME!!”, and posted the image on Instagram as part of a carousel promoting her QVC candles. The post was removed within hours, but screenshots spread across social media, with critics calling the costume “out of touch” and “gross”. Stewart issued two statements, first saying she was “distressed” that the costume had offended people, then later admitting, “Wearing a costume like I did was insensitive and not funny. I’m very sorry”.
The Halloween Costume That Sparked Outrage
The photo showed Stewart in ripped jeans, a cream cardigan and a black knit cap, with dirt makeup smeared across her face. She held a handwritten cardboard sign reading “I AM HUNGRY HELP ME!!”, and two of her dogs sat at her feet. The image was the third slide in an Instagram carousel promoting her candle collection on QVC. “My QVC candles are perfect for Halloween!!!” she wrote in the caption.
Criticism came quickly. Social media users pointed to Stewart’s wealth and accused her of mocking people experiencing homelessness. “Martha Stewart is worth an estimated $400 MILLION, yet thought dressing as a homeless person for Halloween was funny,” one X user wrote. Another comment read: “Super rich people making fun of poor people will never be a gag”. A person who said they had experienced homelessness wrote, “there’s absolutely nothing funny about this”.
The timing drew extra scrutiny. More than 745,000 people experienced homelessness in the United States on a single night in January 2025, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Martha Stewart’s Apology and What She Said
Stewart’s first response came on Sunday, November 1, 2026. In a statement to NBC News and People, she said: “I am distressed that my Halloween costume yesterday, which was intended to bring more awareness to the very serious subject of homelessness, has offended people, which was never my intention”. She added that homelessness “continues to remain one of America’s greatest challenges and ongoing crises, something that I care deeply about and I have spent a significant amount of time and effort supporting charities that combat this ongoing social epidemic”.
Hours later, Stewart posted a second statement on Instagram that went further. “It’s hard to admit when you’ve really screwed up. My earlier statement didn’t go far enough,” she wrote. “I know many people are economically struggling. Wearing a costume like I did was insensitive and not funny. I’m very sorry. Martha”.
Reactions to the apology were mixed. One critic commented that the choice reflected “an utter disconnect from the desperation and suffering of so many people, especially those who are unhoused and hungry”. A supporter defended Stewart by pointing to older Halloween traditions: “We always dressed as ‘Hobo’s’ for Halloween in the 1970’s. It was no big deal”.
How Martha Stewart Built a $400 Million Fortune
The $400 million figure is the most widely cited estimate for Stewart’s net worth in 2026, appearing in reports from TMZ, Fortune, NewsNation and outlets across the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Brazil. The number represents a fortune that once crossed into billionaire territory and later pulled back.
Stewart’s path to wealth did not start in a kitchen. She worked as a model in high school and college, appearing in commercials for brands including Chanel, and later became a stockbroker on Wall Street in the 1970s. In 1976, she left stockbroking to start a catering business from her own kitchen. That catering work led to her first book, “Entertaining,” published in 1982. The book sold more than 625,000 copies, and Stewart has since published almost 100 cookbooks.
The first issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine was published in 1990 in partnership with Time Publishing Ventures, and subscriptions grew past 2 million. In 1997, Stewart borrowed $85 million to buy back the magazine and consolidated her television, print and merchandising businesses into Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO).
The Kmart Deal That Funded the Whole Business
The single most important financial partnership of Stewart’s career was with Kmart. The relationship began in 1987, when Kmart hired her as a lifestyle consultant and spokesperson for its home division. After an initial arrangement faded, Kmart returned to Stewart in 1997 and launched Martha Stewart Everyday, a line of sheets, towels, shower curtains and other bed-and-bath goods sold exclusively at Kmart.
The royalties were enormous. “I was clearing $65 million a year in royalties,” Stewart said on MasterClass’s Other People’s Business podcast in October 2026. “That was funding the whole development of my magazine, the whole business”. At its peak, the line was selling close to $2 billion worth of merchandise a year, and Kmart paid for the advertising, starting with a first-year budget of about $20 million.
The partnership outlasted Stewart’s legal troubles and Kmart’s own 2002 bankruptcy. As late as 2008, the Kmart line accounted for 43% of her company’s merchandising revenue. The deal ended in January 2010 after Kmart’s parent company, Sears Holdings, declined to renew. Stewart later moved on to deals with Macy’s and Home Depot.
The Billionaire Milestone and the $1 Billion Setback
In 1999, Stewart took Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia public. The stock reached $38 a share at the end of its first trading day, and her net worth jumped to $1 billion, making her the first American woman to become a self-made billionaire.
The billionaire status did not last. In 2001, the SEC accused Stewart of insider trading for selling shares of ImClone Systems stock. She was found guilty in 2004 of felony charges including conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding and making false statements to federal investigators. She served five months in prison, five more in home confinement and two years of supervised probation.
The financial damage was severe. “The lawyers took me to the cleaners,” Stewart said, noting that she “lost about a billion dollars” navigating her legal problems. After her release, her company’s stock dropped 40%, and by 2007, Forbes estimated her net worth at around $550 million—almost half of her previous peak. Her net worth later dipped to $500 million before stabilizing in the hundreds of millions.
Martha Stewart’s Business Empire Beyond Magazines and Kmart
Stewart’s income in 2026 comes from several directions. Her brand is managed and licensed by Marquee Brands, which acquired the Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse brands from Sequential Brands Group in 2019 in a deal valued at approximately $175 million. She continues to earn from brand partnerships, and she revealed in October 2026 that brands give her a $40,000 wardrobe budget for fashion shows and television appearances.
Stewart has also invested in newer ventures. She launched a skincare startup called Elm Biosciences, focused on aging skin, and has a CBD line with Canadian cannabis company Canopy Growth. She partnered with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre on a spirits brand called Still G.I.N. and took a role as Kohler’s “cast iron ambassador”. Her latest company is Hint, short for Home Intelligence, an AI-powered home organizer that helps homeowners manage maintenance timelines, utility usage, insurance policies and repair decisions.
At 85, Stewart still starts work at 7 a.m. and rejects the idea of work-life balance. “You can’t balance it,” she said in October 2026. “There is no such thing as balance—just get that through your thick skulls”.
The Wealth Gap Behind the Backlash
The Halloween controversy put a number on the distance between Stewart and the people her costume depicted. Her $400 million fortune sits against a national homelessness crisis that affected more than 745,000 people in a single night in early 2025. Critics on social media returned to that gap repeatedly, framing the costume as a case of a wealthy public figure making light of poverty while promoting a product.
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Stewart’s defenders pointed to her long history of Halloween enthusiasm and her charitable statements about homelessness. The episode remains attached to a career that moved from catering to magazines to a billion-dollar public company, through prison and back to a fortune still estimated in the hundreds of millions.
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