Years after Martha Stewart first gained success as a model, she became the world’s best-known "domestic diva" for her cooking prowess, calming personality, and all kinds of home decor projects. More importantly, Stewart garnered a huge fan base, most of whom trusted her implicitly.

Thanks to all the people that adored Stewart, she managed to create a business empire that made her wealthy beyond belief. Unfortunately, however, things ultimately went awry and that resulted in Stewart losing half of her incredible net worth for fascinating reasons.

UPDATE: 2023/05/20 22:08 EST BY LANE VASQUEZ

Martha Stewart Has Lost A Ton Of Money, But Still Has A Lot Left

Unfortunate financial decisions led to Martha Stewart losing many of her millions, knocking her down from billionaire status. As of 2023, she's worth around $400 million after losing around $325 million due to her company tanking in value.

How Martha Stewart Once Had A Thriving Empire

Martha Stewart's Diet And Workout Routine Got Her Absolutely Ripped And Ready For Sports Illustrated Despite Being In Her 80s
Via: TheThings

In the business world, there is one thing that most companies covet but can rarely attain: consumer trust. After all, most people perceive companies as soulless machines that only care about one thing, making as much money as they can through any means necessary.

Related: Every Time Snoop Dogg And Martha Stewart Caused Fans To Think They Dated

When it comes to the business empire that Martha Stewart built over several years, however, there were millions of people who trusted it. After all, Stewart’s fans had come to trust her advice for years and they saw her business as nothing but an extension of her.

Martha Stewart Was Convicted Of Financial Crimes

As a result of how many people wanted to be like Martha Stewart, her business once was valued at $2 billion amazingly enough. Sadly, however, that changed dramatically after Stewart found herself in serious legal trouble.

On June 4th, 2003, Martha Stewart was indicted on nine counts including securities fraud and obstruction of justice. The reason for the charges is that Stewart was alleged to have gotten inside business information and used it to avoid over $45,000 in stock losses.

When she stood trial, Martha was found guilty and forced to pay a significant penalty; a fine of $30,000 was the first financial blow, and a relatively minor one. But Martha also lost hundreds of millions as her company's worth plummeted.

Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison with two years of supervised release after that; the scandal nearly ended her career altogether.

Related: What Is Martha Stewart's Company 'Martha Stewart Living' Worth Today?

Considering that Marta Stewart’s company was built on her fan’s trust, being sentenced to prison for business dealings was a huge blow to its fortunes. In fact, the company's value decreased so significantly that Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia agreed to a $350 million buyout from Sequential Brands Group in 2015.

Four years later, the company was sold again to Marquee Brands for just $175 million. Since a large portion of Martha Stewart’s personal fortune was wrapped up in stock in her company, she lost a lot of money when its valuation diminished so dramatically.

Martha Stewart Is No Longer A Billionaire

Martha Stewart at a charity event
Via: Instar

Before Martha Stewart became a business leader, she began to amass her fortune as a media personality. While going to prison had a huge effect on Stewart’s business empire, it certainly seemed like she should have been able to hold on to most of her fortune since she could go back to the formula that made her rich and famous, to begin with.

Sadly, however, around the same time Stewart’s time in prison destroyed her company, the world was going through a massive change that affected her.

When Marth Stewart lost control of her business empire, that didn’t mean that she needed to get out of the publishing business. After all, Stewart made a fortune from her magazine and cooking books in the past and there is no reason why she couldn’t continue to even if she needed to rebrand.

Martha Stewart Is Still Successful Today (But In New Ways)

However, around that same time, people got used to looking for recipes online, so cookbooks weren’t profitable for authors the way they once were. Even magazines have become a relic of the past as proven by the fact that it was announced that Stewart’s magazine wasn’t going to be published in print form any longer.

Related: How Martha Stewart Landed The Cover Of Sports Illustrated

As a result of the way that people consume media being transformed thanks to the internet, many of the ways that Martha Stewart used to make money have dried up. Factoring that in with the losses Stewart suffered on the stock market, it makes sense that her fortune has greatly diminished. In fact, Stewart once had a reported $1 billion fortune, and now, she is worth only $400 million (which is still a lot for most celebrities!).

And it seems very clear that Stewart herself wouldn’t want anyone to feel sorry for her. Plus, she has plenty of time to build back her net worth, as she's still very much everyone's favorite domestic diva.