Martha Stewart's Daughter Alexis Has Lived A Tragic Life

Martha Stewart built an empire from her basement in Westport, Connecticut. A best-selling author, entrepreneur, and TV show host, Stewart became a household name, teaching the world simple tricks to living a better life. And while Stewart and her husband, Andrew, worked day and night to show people how to create a happy home, their daughter, Alexis Stewart, had to grow up quickly, with her mother having her driving when she was just 10.

Born before her mother became an icon, Alexis appeared to grow up in the lap of luxury, thanks in no small part to her mother's lavish life, but she has faced a number of personal struggles over the years. Alexis was raised in a home that her mother called "a dream place for my family and me for many years" on her website, but, for her daughter, that home came with a number of traumatic incidents. And while her mother may try to make it look like her life is worthy of the cover of Martha Stewart Living, Alexis has made a career by being open about her life, revealing the hard truths, broken bonds, and tragedies that have shaped her on her Sirius XM show, "Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer," and in her book, "Whateverland: Learning to Live Here." 

Before moving to the Turkey Hill farmstead, the Sewarts lived in an apartment in Manhattan. Andrew Stewart was working at the publishing house Harry N. Abrams, and when Alexis was 2, Martha started working as a stockbroker. Both jobs kept the couple busy; Alexis was often left in the apartment with her au pair, Nancy Beningo. Speaking with the New York Post, Beningo expressed sorrow for Alexis, saying, "She just didn't seem to be the happiest little person."

The Stewarts moved to Connecticut in 1971, when Alexis was 6. By her mother's own admission, Alexis did not have the best parents. Martha opened up to People, saying: "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 doesn't disagree with her mother's feelings, writing in her book, "Martha was not interested in being kid-friendly. And while her mom knew how to make an amazing meal, eating wasn't an easy task. According to Alexis (via Fox News), "I had no food ... There were ingredients but no prepared food of any kind." 

Despite her parents being virtually absent from her life, Alexis excelled in school, telling Larry King, "I was very nerdy. I did all my homework." In the same interview, she explained that her mother wished she would rebel, saying, "My mother would encourage me. Please don't come home on time, she would say to me, but I was very nerdy. I was home on time." In her teens, Alexis attended the Putney School, which she described to King as "A very small, hippie, kind of funky boarding school." There, away from her parents, Alexis was happy. "I loved it," she said.

While Martha Stewart is famous for her sense of style and presentation, it seems that she couldn't take the time to use some of those skills to make her daughter happy. In her book, Alexis explained what the holidays were like in the Stewart home, claiming that she didn't get to dress up for Halloween and the family avoided trick-or-treaters. "We turned off all the lights and pretended we weren't home," she wrote (via Fox News).

Things weren't any better when it came to Christmas. While her mother went on TV to show people how to create a perfectly cheerful and cozy winter wonderland for the holiday, including what to cook, how to set the table, and the trick to wrapping each gift just right, Alexis had to do some of those things for herself. As she describes in her book, "She would hand me things right before Christmas and say, 'Now wrap these but don't look inside.'" And, if things weren't wrapped to her mother's perfectionist standards, Alexis would have had to do it again. As she put it, "I grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head." 

Martha apparently continues to be judgmental of her daughter's abilities. Explaining why she doesn't invite her mother over for dinner more often, Alexis opined, "But can you blame me? Because, sometimes this is what will happen: whatever I serve, she'll sip it, taste it, make a face and push it away."

The marriage of Martha and Andrew Stewart was never on the best footing. During the couple's honeymoon in Italy, Martha took some time for herself and made out with a stranger, and she later had an affair while working as a stockbroker. Andrew was also unfaithful, as Martha explained in her Netflix documentary, "Martha." One of Andrew's affairs was with a woman who worked at their home in Connecticut. After 29 years, Andrew asked for a divorce. And while Alexis Stewart has remained close to her mother — she even dedicated her book to her mom, writing (via Fox News), "Thanks in advance to my mother for not getting angry about anything written in this book" — she does not talk to her father.

Speaking to New York Magazine in 2008, Alexis didn't hold back when talking about her dad, saying, "He was a d*ck in many ways." She also says: "He was always creepy to me. He's just creepy." In the same article, Andrew laments his relationship with his daughter, believing that his decision to leave her mother lies at the heart of their problem, explaining: "I guess Lexi felt I left her. I certainly didn't feel that way. I love her a lot."  

Three years after the divorce, Andrew married Martha Stewart's former assistant, Robyn Fairclough, who is 21 years younger than him. Their relationship started while Andrew was still married to Martha.

2004 was a very trying year for Alexis Stewart. January kicked off with Martha Stewart's insider trading trial getting underway. The lifestyle guru had been charged with selling her stake in the biotech company ImClone in 2001 after learning that the company's stock was going to collapse. Helping defend Martha in the trial was John Robert Cuti, who also happened to be Alexis' husband. Alexis and Cuti were married in 1997, skipping the big ceremony and choosing instead to say their vows in front of just five guests. By 2003, before her mother's trial began, the two had separated. 

The trial did not go well for Martha, who was found guilty and, along with being fined $30,000, was ordered to serve five months in prison and an additional five months of house arrest. Alexis sat in attendance as the trial went on and was in the courtroom as the verdict was read. Hearing the jury find her mother guilty came as a shock, and Alexis fainted. Alexis and Cuti's divorce was finalized after the trial.

In 2009, five years after her mother's trial, Alexis Stewart had legal issues of her own when she was audited by the IRS and was ordered to pay over a million dollars in back taxes and fines. Alexis, in turn, sued her accountant, Michael Mirras, claiming that he was the reason her taxes were incorrectly filed. The problem began in 2002 when Alexis sold shares of her mother's company, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, and hired Mirras to calculate the proper amount she would need to pay in capital gains tax. According to Alexis, Mirras failed to properly calculate how much she would owe in capital gains taxes.

At the same time, Alexis was trying to have a child, but struggled to conceive. She had initially hoped to have a baby in 2004, but her mother's trial forced her to put her own plans aside. As she told People, she returned to her plan to be a mother in 2005, saying, "I'm single now, but having my own kid is the most important thing in my life, so I am trying everything I can." After turning 40, Alexis found it difficult to find a fertility clinic that would help her. In December 2006, she went to the New York Fertility Institute and began shelling out $6,000 a month for the medication and another $20,000 to $27,000 a month to have her eggs removed and fertilized by doctors, who inject sperm into the eggs. In 2011, after half a decade of trying, Alexis gave birth to her first child, a daughter she named Jude. A year later, Jude became a big sister to Truman.