NEWSMartha Stewart Says Ina Garten Was 'Extremely Unfriendly' and 'Stopped Talking to Her' After She Was 'Sent Off' to Prison
Martha Stewart and Ina Garten have conflicting memories regarding a brief rift in their friendship.
Martha Stewart and Ina Garten have been two of the most powerful cooking and lifestyle queens for generations — but their friendship has been far from perfect.
The two television personalities’ longtime bond was examined in a new profile on Garten, 76, published earlier this month.
Martha Stewart said Ina Garten stopped talking to her after she went to prison.
According to Garten, the pair lost touch after the Martha Stewart Living star started spending more of her time at a new property she purchased in Bedford, N.Y. — though Stewart had a completely different version of the story.
"When I was sent off to Alderson Prison, she stopped talking to me," Stewart claimed. "I found that extremely distressing and extremely unfriendly."
Ina Garten denied drifting from Martha Stewart because of her prison stint.
For background, Stewart infamously spent five months in prison in 2004 after she was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction and two counts of lying to investigators as a result of her involvement in an insider trading scandal.
After released from jail, Stewart went on to serve five months of home confinement before enduring two years of supervised probation.
Garten "firmly denied" Stewart's recollection of their apparent falling out, per the news outlet's profile.
Despite Stewart still appearing a bit hostile about her and Garten drifting apart during the 83-year-old's prison stint, the Meatless author's longtime publicist and friend Susan Magrino clarified Stewart was "not bitter at all and there’s no feud" between her and the Barefoot Contessa host.
Martha Stewart spent five months in prison in the early 2000s.
Garten previously shed light on her friendship with Stewart back in 2017, telling TIME they "became friends" after the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia founder stopped by the Be My Guest star's now-closed Barefoot Contessa store in East Hampton, N.Y. during the early 1990s.
"My desk was right in front of the cheese case and we just ended up in a conversation," Garten explained. "We ended up actually doing benefits together where it was at her house and I was the caterer, and we became friends after that."
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While speaking with TIME, Garten praised Stewart, admitting: "I think she did something really important, which is that she took something that wasn’t valued, which is home arts, and raised it to a level that people were proud to do it and that completely changed the landscape."
"I then took it in my own direction, which is that I’m not a trained professional chef, cooking is really hard for me — here I am 40 years in the food business, it’s still hard for me," she explained.
Stewart's publicist said there is 'no feud' between her and Ina Garten.
Stewart similarly spoke fondly of Garten when writing the foreword of the latter's first cookbook, The Barefoot Contessa, in 1999.
"It took a while, but I finally understood what motivated Ina, realizing that here was a true kindred spirit with really similar but unique talents," Stewart penned.
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The New Yorker published a profile on Garten.
