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Martha Stewart disparaged a variety of people while promoting her Netflix documentary, Martha, and her 100th cookbook, Martha: The Cookbook: 100 Favorite Recipes: A Colon Is A Good Thing. One of the first instances happened before either project was released, when Martha was asked by The New Yorker to give a quote on her (alleged) friend, Ina Garten, who had her own book coming out. Instead of offering a nice little anecdote, as people usually do when contributing to a profile, Martha said that Ina snubbed her after she went to prison. Ina rebutted with “recollections may vary,” and Martha’s publicist promptly waded in telling The New Yorker “there’s no feud,” and that Martha wasn’t “bitter at all.” Methinks the publicist doth protest too much. Well, Ina was at a Q&A last week, and she reiterated her position that Martha’s version of events “isn’t exactly accurate,” and also suggested that after two decades, it was “time to let it go.” If only the documentary cameras had still been rolling to capture Martha’s reaction!
Ina Garten is addressing her falling out with Martha Stewart.
During a live Q&A at the PEOPLE offices on Dec. 5, Garten, 76, spoke about her former friendship with the lifestyle mogul. Stewart, 83, had previously claimed that Garten stopped speaking to her after Stewart went to prison in 2004 — but now Garten said that’s not true.
“Well, let’s just say her story isn’t exactly accurate,” Garten rebutted.
“And, you know, that was 25 years ago,” she added with a laugh. “I think it’s time to let it go.”
The celebrity chefs met in the Hamptons, N.Y., in the 1990s. While friends, Garten wrote a column for Martha Stewart Living. Stewart also brought a publisher to Garten’s specialty food store The Barefoot Contessa, which led to Garten landing her first book deal.
Garten — who released her latest book, a memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, on Oct. 1 — told The New Yorker in September that distance was the reason the friendship ended. According to Garten, she and Stewart lost touch when she moved to Connecticut and Stewart stayed in New York.
Stewart told a different story. “When I was sent off to Alderson Prison, she stopped talking to me,” Stewart said. On the Oct. 20 episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Stewart made similar claims.
Stewart’s publicist added to The New Yorker that she was “not bitter at all and there’s no feud.”
At the Oct. 21 NYC premiere of her Netflix documentary Martha, Stewart told PEOPLE that a reconciliation between her and Garten was unlikely.
“She’s into her own thing,” Stewart said. “That’s okay.”
You know what? I think this is good for Martha, having someone bite back. Don’t get me wrong, I hope Ina has solid security measures in place after publicly calling Martha a liar and telling her to get over it. But let’s see if Martha rises to the occasion. Like a salty souffle. For what it’s worth, and in the name of peace and reconciliation, I would like to point out to both Martha and Ina that Amazon pairs their latest books when you scroll down to “frequently bought together.” As for Ina’s explanation on how they lost touch — because she moved away from Martha in New York to that far off land… Connecticut! — as a resident of the tristate area I definitely did an eye roll. People can drift apart, and that’s fine and a full explanation itself as far as I’m concerned. But commuting and communicating between NY and CT is not an insurmountable hill to climb if they’d wanted to, lol. The woman I still feel the most sympathy for out of this story is Martha’s publicist Susan Magrino! Do you think she has these denials pre-recorded on her phone, and trots them out as necessary? Martha Stewart calls Ryan Reynolds “not so funny in real life.” Susan: “There’s no feud!” NY Post columnist claps back at Martha Stewart after Martha said she was dead. Susan: “She’s not bitter at all!” Being prepared: it’s a good thing.
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Staying in touch no matter the distance is a two way thing. Did Martha write to Ina from prison and get snubbed or did she assume that Ina would send a “sorry to hear you went to jail” card and re-establish contact? Her publicist might as well admit that Martha is bitter toward everybody she perceives as having snubbed her.
Saying that someone is not bitter at all is practically the same thing as saying they are bitter as hell. Martha can sure hold a grudge.
She’s a Leo, if you believe in that sort of stuff…;)
I think it speaks a lot about Martha’s narcissistic ways to have a problem with someone drifting apart from her. She can do the cheating, but not them; they are bitter, not them (while practically having a burn book of everybody).
She reminds me of the Donald.
All I know is that Ina Garten is very relaxing to watch. Martha Stewart makes me nervous.
There are some episodes of Ina that can always resurrect my good mood, the one where the lighthouse is featured for one. She is my alternative to Xanax, I can’t not relax when she’s on tv.
I don’t know…I can sort of buy the NY – CT move changing the relationship. Also having grown up in the tri state area, I-95 between NY and Stamford is perpetually under construction and one accident on the Hutchinson/Merritt can derail things for hours. And don’t see either of them hopping the commuter rail to meet for lunch in Greenwich, lol!
LOL! Public transportation? How gauche!
Not that I care but, “You’re a liar” and “Get over it” are kind of contradictory. It’s like saying “Nothing happened” and “That thing that happened, you should get over it.”
Maybe not. She could be saying that Martha’s version is a lie and that losing contact had nothing to do with jail, but something did happen that caused bitterness when Ina moved.
@ Eurydice – I had the same reaction – definitely contradictory, a “tell” that something happened, whatever it was, and not that nothing happened. But I don’t care either, except to say that Martha seems to think that publicly bitching about somebody will bring her an apology or fix what went wrong. That rarely happens.
I love Ina, that is all…
Same! The Martha doc was great, and I love a lot of things about her, but I will always have Ina’s back. She is a treasure.
I’m guessing Ina let the friendship drop about that time. Jeffrey was a Dean at Yale Business School and Martha was convicted of insider trading. It wasn’t that she was in jail, it was the actual crime she was convicted of. Ina is saying, let it drop, because it was an actual issue for her. And they weren’t close enough friends for Ina to stick out her neck and risk Jeffrey’s reputation. If Jeffrey had negative feelings about Martha, Ina would dump her without a moment’s hesitation.
Actually, the securities fraud part of the case was dropped. Martha was convicted of lying to the federal prosecutors and obstructing justice.
I watched the doc and was surprised (but not really on second thought) to see that James Comey is the prosecutor that went after Martha. Puts things in a different light for sure.
I will also say that I don’t think Martha comes off very well in the doc. I’d much rather hand out with Ina than Martha.
I appreciate the business Martha has created and maintained. She truly is a force but she’s a nasty person and revels in being nasty. She really does expect people to hold court for her and I don’t like that shit.
I appreciate that Ina is like “girl, move on.”
Martha’s a Slytherin and Ina is Hufflepuff. iykyk
You nailed it
The thing I don’t like is how Martha will go throw nasty public jabs at people and then her publicist will then run behind her and ‘hide her hands’ as if it’s all a misunderstanding on everyone else’s part. Ina basically said ‘your a liar but I refuse to give you anymore energy in a 25 year old one sided grudge’ How embarrassing.
Martha seems exhausting to know and be around. My SIL is like her-cataloging every perceived slight and holding onto them for DECADES, just to trot out occasionally when she wants attention. You can’t argue with someone like that, it’s best to wish them well and pass them by. Ina isn’t perfect but she seems a lot more at peace than Martha.
Once, during a big dispute over some foliage along their property line, Martha pinned her neighbor’s gardener to her gate with her car and called the cops on the worker for trespassing. And if anyone remembers old gossip, there were tons of stories from former employees at Martha Stewart Living HQ about the kind of petty, nightmare boss she was.
“Like a salty souffle.”
LMFAO