Martha Stewart reveals that her father slapped her for dating a Jewish beauty

Martha Stewart opened up about her relationship with her father, Edward Kostyra, in her new Netflix book.

The famous saint, aged 83, recalled how her father got angry when she got engaged to Andrew Stewart. The couple met when Martha was a student at Barnard College, New York City, and Andrew was a law student at Yale University. They were set up by Martha’s classmate and Andrew’s sister.

Martha said she “fell in love” with Andrew after their first date and they got engaged shortly after – much to Kostyra’s dismay.

He said: “I went home and told my father, and my father beat me.” “He hit me hard on my face and said, ‘No, you are not marrying him. I’m Jewish.’”

He added: “I remembered that slap. “I was not surprised at all because he was an unpleasant person, and he was hasty. But I said, ‘I’m going to get married no matter what you think.'”

Martha said her mother, nicknamed “Big Martha,” helped her make her a “beautiful” wedding dress.

“The wedding day was very happy,” she shared with Andrew about their marriage in 1961. “It was the beginning of my life.”

The former “Martha Stewart Show” host grew up as one of six children in Nutley, New Jersey. His mother was a school teacher and his father a failed businessman.

Calling her father “a perfectionist,” Martha recalled, “My father taught each of us how to garden. He could grow anything. I was the perfect daughter. I wanted to learn, he had a lot to teach, and I listened.”

“My father was the best father,” he continued. “He loved me. And it was clear to everyone that he was the one she loved. He thought I was more like him than other children. He did the work he planned to do. It’s not his job. He was failing at his job.”

Martha continued, “He could have done everything he wanted to do and he was busy selling. Sometimes he started the day off with a large glass of coffee and red wine. So is that an alcoholic? Maybe. But he never looked like a drunk. He never tripped over throwing things and breaking things. That was not my father. But he was a dissatisfied, unhappy person.”

Martha’s relationship with her father took a turn for the worse when she met Andrew in college.

“We went to dinner. “He was very beautiful and beautiful, and he was very outgoing,” she recalled when they first fell in love. “It was nice to meet such a good guy. And he had an American Express card, which was a very bad thing in those days.”

“He was just amazing, playful and beautiful. By the end of dinner I was madly in love,” said Martha. “Andy was very nice. I’m nothing like my dad. He used to send me money for a train ticket and I visited him every weekend when I was at Yale.”

Martha also said that Andrew lost his virginity when he was 19. She said: “I had never slept with anyone before that. He was very aggressive and I loved it.

Martha and Andrew married in 1961 and welcomed their daughter, Alexis Stewart, four years later.

The famous chef’s father died in 1979 while still married to Andrew. His mother died in 2007.

Martha and Andrew divorced in 1990 and Andrew later married Martha’s assistant, Robyn Fairclough.

In the Netflix documentary, Martha said that Andrew cheated with Fairclough. He also said that he has an affair of his own that Andrew doesn’t know about.

“Young women, listen to my advice, if you’re married and your husband starts cheating on you, he’s a piece of s–t,” Martha said. “Get out of that marriage.”

In 2020, Stewart reflected on her “nasty” divorce from Andrew and shared that the former were not on speaking terms.

“The divorce was a very bad thing for me, because we were the first in my family to divorce,” she told People. And the fact that we haven’t talked since the divorce is even more painful.

“Martha” is streaming on Netflix.