As the daughter of America’s first female self-made billionaire, Alexis Stewart had a privileged upbringing. Martha Stewart’s only child grew up on the Connecticut farmhouse that doubled as her first business office. “Turkey Hill was a dream place for my family and me for many years,” she wrote on her website. “It taught us, it nurtured us, it fed us, and it occupied us in so many wonderful and instructive ways.” But Alexis recalls it differently.
Her mother’s professional aspirations and dedication to the farmhouse occupied most of her time, leaving little to be shared with Alexis. With no siblings to keep her company, Alexis lived a childhood that was, in many ways, isolating. While her parents worked, she was cared for by an au pair who also cared for two other little ones. “I just felt sorry for her,” the au pair, Nancy Beningo, told the New York Post in 2004.
Growing up wrapping her own Christmas presents made Alexis’ childhood a lot less enchanting than one might have expected the daughter of the lifestyle guru to have. But she doesn’t just blame her mother, with whom she went on to have a good relationship as an adult. Alexis’ relationship with her father, on the other hand, is non-existent. But none of that kept her from wanting to start her own family. But that dream proved difficult to fulfill. While she went on to live a full life, Alexis overcame plenty of obstacles to get there.
Martha and Andrew Stewart were absent parents
Martha Stewart put a lot of hours into her business empire, building it from the ground up. After all, what Martha did for a living before her fame couldn’t have been further from what she ended up doing. She left behind a career as a stockbroker on Wall Street to dedicate time to homemaking and cooking, only to see a business opportunity in that. “I decided that the home was really my place,” she told People in 1995. Despite being home, Martha had little time for Alexis Stewart.
That’s by Martha’s own admission. “I think we did a poor job as parents,” she said. “We were too involved in our professional lives and fixing up the house. We were always making the home into a mythological place. But it wasn’t a home — we didn’t spend enough time with Lexi.” Alexis has also not held back in criticizing her mother for her upbringing. While she did grow up in a perfect home, it was meant to be admired only. “Martha was not interested in being kid-friendly,” she wrote in her 2011 memoir, “Whateverland: Learning to Live Here.”
Despite her absence, Martha expected Alexis to be just as efficient. “If I didn’t do something perfectly, I had to do it again,” Alexis penned. According to Martha’s brother, Eric J. Scott, that was a consequence of their own upbringing. “My father was supercritical,” he told People. “And Martha is very demanding. It’s a family curse.”
Martha Stewart was neglectful toward Alexis at times
The home Martha Stewart spent nearly all her waking hours perfecting was anything but perfect in Alexis Stewart’s eyes. In many ways, her house resembled a store window more than a home. Her mother had no interest in making the place a cozy place for her family, with Alexis describing situations that veered into neglectful territory at times. “There was never anything to eat at my house. Other people had food. I had no food … There were ingredients but no prepared food of any kind,” Alexis wrote in “Whateverland.”
The Stewarts’ home was no magical place during holidays, either. While she always remembered to buy her daughter presents, she had no time to waste with wrapping paper. “She would hand me things right before Christmas and say, “Now wrap these but don’t look inside,” she wrote. If she didn’t make an exception for Christmas, she put even less effort into celebrating Halloween. “There were no costumes. There was no anything. We turned off all the lights and pretended we weren’t home,” Alexis shared.
Despite her shortcomings in motherhood, Martha’s relationship with her daughter went on to be positive later on. “We’re incredibly close, and we’re both very opinionated people,” Alexis told the “Today” show’s Savannah Guthrie in 2011. Martha is also grateful Alexis gave her two grandchildren. Unlike her opinion of her own mothering skills, Martha thinks highly of her daughter’s abilities. “She is the perfect mother,” Martha said on “Cold Cuts with Al Roker” in 2018.
Alexis Stewart has no relationship with her father
Alexis may not think Martha Stewart was the perfect mother when she was growing up, but she believes she is a good person. Her thoughts on her father are very different. Alexis is estranged from Andrew Stewart and has been for many years. “He was a d**k in many ways,” she told New York magazine in 2008. “Monetarily. Emotionally. And he was creepy to me. He’s just creepy.” Andrew, for his part, claimed to be unaware of his daughter’s reasons for distancing herself from him. “I’ve tried to figure it out,” he said.
Andrew conjectured that it may be linked to his and Martha’s divorce. “I guess Lexi felt I left her. I certainly didn’t feel that way. I love her a lot,” he said, adding that, of all his children, Alexis is the only one he’s estranged from. “I know her mother was hurt when I left her. I was hurt too. I think she was sympathetic toward her mother, which I can understand.” Andrew continued to try to reestablish a relationship with her, sending her cards and gifts on special occasions. But Alexis always sent them back unopened.
While Alexis didn’t give details about her motivations, her choice of the word “creepy” may be a hint. In 1993, Martha’s ex moved on with none other than her assistant, Robyn Fairclough. Not only that, but Fairclough was also 21 years younger than him, making her much closer in age to Alexis.
Alexis Stewart got divorced while her mother was in trial
Alexis Stewart and her mother’s personal lives got intertwined at a complicated time. In January 2004, Martha Stewart stood trial on fraud charges relating to the sale of her ImClone Systems stake in 2001. And one of Martha’s trial lawyers was her son-in-law, John Robert Cuti (seen above). But while Cuti defended her, his marriage to Alexis was breaking down. Before Martha was Indicted in June 2003, Cuti and Alexis had already separated.
Alexis and Cuti divorced in 2004, while he unsuccessfully fought to keep his soon-to-be former mother-in-law from serving time. Martha was sentenced to five months in prison for her crime. “I’ll be back. I will be back. I’m used to all kinds of hard work, as you know, and I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid whatsoever,” she told a crowd of supporters, The New York Times reported. As such, Alexis watched from the public gallery as her mother learned of a fate her ex-husband failed to prevent.
While Martha remained stoic upon learning of her conviction, her daughter was the opposite. “Nobody really knows that, but it was so horrifying and incomprehensible that I fainted,” she said on ”Larry King Live” in March 2004 (via The New York Times). “And even the people around me didn’t know.” Alexis didn’t find someone new following her divorce. But that didn’t stop her from having the family of her dreams — though the journey was anything but easy.
Alexis Stewart had a long journey with infertility
Alexis Stewart is the proud mother of a daughter, Jude, and a son, Truman. But her road to motherhood was long, painful, and expensive. Alexis didn’t start considering kids until she was 37, not thinking she would have any issues. By then, she and John Robert Cuti were separated, but her desire to become a mother was only getting stronger. “I’m single now, but having my own kid is the most important thing in my life,” she told People in 2007.
Alexis went the IVF route when she was 40. “I am trying everything I can: fancy doctors, expensive drugs, high-tech procedures,” she said. She was spending between $20,000 to $27,000 between doctors and IVF transfers using an anonymous donor, plus $6,000 for the drugs — and that was per month. “Most people can’t afford what I am doing, I am really lucky; I know that,” she added. But after a series of unsuccessful transfers, she had to reconsider her options.
In 2011, Alexis, then 45, welcomed Jude thanks to a surrogate. But her long journey kept her from enjoying the pregnancy. Before Jude was born, she had experienced several losses that made the process traumatic. “Every time I went to get a sonogram with Jude, I would have that ‘I can’t stand up’ feeling. I related the sonogram to something horrible,” she said that year, accoridng to the Daily Mail. Truman joined the brood just a year later, completing Alexis’ longed-for family.
