Ellen DeGeneres poked fun at Martha Stewart's dating life but it backfired: "None of your business..."
'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' has featured iconic guests throughout its 19 seasons and most of the time, DeGeneres has successfully pried out controversial confessionals on the show. However, during a 'Never Have I Ever' segment in 2016, the comedian's clever tactics failed to get Martha Stewart to reveal her dating secrets. "Never have I ever sexted," DeGeneres asked, and the media mogul raised her placard, revealing "I Have." "Martha, you've sexted? Do you know what that is?" DeGeneres followed up. To which the seasoned author gave a curt reply, "I have used technology for a lot longer than you have, Ellen."
DeGeneres further poked fun, "All right. Wow! To Who? Is it someone current, or is this a while ago?" "It doesn't say none of your business," Martha said while subtly admitting to sending R-rated texts and shutting down the talk show host to the amusement of the audience. DeGeneres returned to the joke by asking another question, "Never have I ever been to a nude beach." Martha displayed the phrase 'I Have' on her cue card, while the comedian displayed the phrase 'I Have Never.' "Haven't you been to Sand Beach on St. Barts?" the media mogul asked with a sly smile. "No. No, I haven't happened to Sand Beach. No," DeGeneres replied. "Wow. With that same person, you just texted?" she added while bouncing back the question to Martha.
Parade reported that Martha is currently single, but the billionaire businesswoman was in a toxic relationship with Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins in the 1990s. "I have a big, scary house in Maine that's way by itself on 100 acres in the forest, and I couldn't even imagine taking Anthony Hopkins there," she confessed while appearing on 'The Ellen Show' in 2022. "I couldn't—all I could think of was him eating, you know," she said referring to his fixation on his critically acclaimed 'Hannibal' role. The Sports Illustrated model was married to publisher Andrew Stewart from 1961 to 1990. According to People, the couple met through a blind date and shared instant attraction. The couple reportedly loved remodeling houses together during their happy marriage.
The couple share only one daughter, Alexis, in a 1995 interview Andrew expressed regret of not being able to be the ideal parents for their daughter. "We were too involved in our professional lives and fixing up the house. But it wasn’t a home — we didn’t spend enough time with Lexi. I think we did a poor job as parents," he said. After they split up in 1987, Andrew got a court order prohibiting her from talking to him, which devastated the lifestyle mogul. In 1990, their divorce was formalized.
“The life that I had is over,” Martha said. “And what has taken its place is better.” Ironically, years later the media magnet revealed during her Netflix documentary titled 'Martha' that she had cheated on her ex-husband. In one scene from the biopic, she advises younger women to leave their marriages if their spouse ever cheats. At that point, the producer asks, "Didn’t you have an affair early on?" To which she replied, "Yeah, but I don’t think Andy ever knew about that.” Martha famously dated Mort Zuckerman, the former CEO of U.S. News & World Report, and IT billionaire Charles Simonyi after her divorce.