No Keeping Martha Down!

SHE HAD IT ALL, AND EVERYTHING WAS TAKEN AWAY FROM HER, BUT MARTHA STEWART HAS MADE IT BACK TO THE TOP-ON HER OWN TERMS.

THE Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, W.Va., was nicknamed “Camp Cupcake” when domestic doyenne Martha Stewart was sent there in 2004 for charges related to conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

But the 150 days she spent in lockup were no picnic. “People were jumped, beaten,” the 83-year-old says in the new Netflix doc Martha. “I was warned, but I was not protected.”

In typical Martha fashion, the lifestyle guru made lemons into prison lemonade. She made friends, giving gardening and business lessons to her fellow inmates. Most important, she says, was her “ability through it all to be productive.” She makes it look easy, but Martha, America’s first female self-made billionaire, was in nearly every way ahead of her time. She was a lone female stockbroker in the late 1960s, then pivoted her catering company into a media empire. At the same time, the perfectionist became someone people loved to hate, and by the time she was released from prison, she was a laughingstock. But as she makes crystal clear in the doc, she is having the last laugh, dishing on her exes and revelling in her latein-life relevancy. “For Martha, there’s no question,” an insider tells Star. “Living well is the best revenge.”