Martha knows best? Martha Stewart is known for speaking her mind when it comes to fellow stars, the business world and more hot-button issues. In fact, she often sparks controversy with her snarky opinions.
The businesswoman is perhaps as associated with her empire as she is with her ongoing feud with Gwyneth Paltrow regarding her Goop company. “I haven’t eaten at Gwyneth’s house and I don’t know how she lives, but if she’s authentic, all the better. I certainly hope she is,” Stewart told Bloomberg Television in October 2013. “She really wants to be part of the lifestyle business. She’s a charming, pretty person who has a feeling for lifestyle. Fine, good. … I think I started this whole category of lifestyle.”
Stewart has been skeptical of other famous faces who tried to make the leap from actress to lifestyle guru, including her pal Blake Lively when the Gossip Girl alum launched her website, Preserve, in July 2014.
“Let her try,” the Martha Knows Best star told HuffPost Entertainment in July 2014 of Lively trying to emulate her. “I don’t mean that facetiously! I mean, it’s stupid. She could be an actress! Why would you want to be me if you could be an actress? I just did a movie yesterday, though — I can’t even tell you about it — but I want to be Blake Lively.”
The A Simple Favor star shut down Preserve in October 2015, at which point Stewart offered words of encouragement to her New York neighbor. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I know she made a big effort,” she told Us Weekly. “Sometimes shuttering is good. Listen, she’s a movie actress. Why bother with commerce right now? She’s at the top of her career. … I’m totally supportive, but you know what? Maybe you can’t do everything at the same time.”
The cookbook author remained friends with Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, after her initial criticism, later playfully throwing shade at the Deadpool star in April 2020.
Despite her frank nature — or possibly because of it — fans still look to Stewart as a source of inspiration, which she has embraced. “If you can get some life lessons out of what I’ve done or what I think I’ve done, that would be great,” she said in the March 2021 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
Scroll down to revisit Stewart’s most eyebrow-raising quotes about Paltrow, Bethenny Frankel, Rachael Ray and more through the years.