There may be some beef between two big — and beloved — names in the world of food entertainment. Martha Stewart recently spoke out against her longtime food television peer, Ina Garten, due to an "unfriendly" incident that took place during the early aughts.
Earlier this month, the New Yorker published a profile on Garten in anticipation of the October release of her new memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens.” In it, Garten discussed the early beginnings of her successful career — which can be credited to the first issue of Stewart’s magazine “Martha Stewart Living” — and her budding relationship, both professional and personal, with Stewart.
According to Garten, she and Stewart lost touch after the latter purchased a property in Bedford, New York, and spent much of her time there. Stewart, however, said the duo didn’t part ways so amicably.
“When I was sent off to Alderson Prison, she stopped talking to me,” Stewart told "The New Yorker’s" Molly Fischer. “I found that extremely distressing and extremely unfriendly.”
In March 2004, Stewart was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction and two counts of lying to federal investigators in connection with an insider trading scheme. She was sentenced in July 2004 to five months in prison, along with five months of home confinement and two years of supervised probation.
Garten “firmly denied” Stewart’s claim, per "The New Yorker." Stewart’s longtime publicist, Susan Magrino, later clarified that Stewart was “not bitter at all and there’s no feud.”
News of tensions between Garten and Stewart comes after the latter threw shade at the former’s advice to “drink more large cosmos” amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “I do not agree about taking to drink to cope with things like the pandemic,” Stewart told People back in 2022. “To me that's not charming.” What she considers charming includes “continuing to work really hard, to be as productive as I possibly can be, to enjoy my grandchildren,” she added.
Garten’s playful advice was shared as a comment under a now-deleted New Year's Instagram post from Reese Witherspoon, in which the actor shared a few of her healthy daily habits, including drinking more water and getting at least eight hours of sleep. Garten responded cheekily, saying, “To quote Reese Witherspoon, that sounds great but I'm probably not doing any of those things! LOL!!”
She went on to outline her “formula” for staying sane during the pandemic. It includes four things: drinking more large cosmos, staying up late watching addictive streaming series, staying in bed in the morning playing Sudoko instead of reading a good book and spending more time (safely) with people you love.
