Martha Stewart reveals the chilling reason she 'broke-up' with Anthony Hopkins
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: 'Martha', the new documentary on Netflix, dives deep into the fascinating life of America's iconic businesswoman and TV personality, Martha Stewart. Capturing the highs and lows, Director RJ Cutler pieces together intimate details from Stewart’s life including her modeling years, her Wall Street days, and her eventual transformation into a famous media personality. As much as her professional arc inspires people, her personal life too been equally intriguing, including her affair with Anthony Hopkins.
Martha Stewart's relationship with two-time Oscar winner, Hopkins, was quite brief. It even remained unknown to the public until Stewart herself shared startling details of her affair on chat shows and hinted how one of his movie roles was the reason why things didn't work out between them.
Why did Martha Stewart and Anthony Hopkins break up?
In 2022, Stewart appeared on The Ellen Show and played a revealing game of 'Two Truths and a Lie' called, 'Where's the Lie, Martha?' One of the clues read, “I dated Sir Anthony Hopkins but broke up with him because I couldn’t stop thinking of him as Hannibal Lecter.” Stewart ended up accepting that she indeed dated him. Adding that the clue was true, she said, “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. I couldn’t—all I could think of was him eating, you know."
Hopinks played Dr Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 psychological horror thriller 'The Silence of the Lambs'. This character was first created by Thomas Harris for his novel of the same name. This character is a brilliant, cannibalistic serial killer and former forensic psychiatrist. This role won Hopkins the Academy Award for Best Actor. He again reprised this role in 2001 for Ridley Scott's adaptation and sequel called 'Hannibal'.
Martha Stewart also acknowledged on 'The Meredith Vieira Show’ that she and Hopkins “went out to dinner a few times,” but added, “a girl should never kiss and tell.” Despite these crisp details of their brief romance, the timeline of their relationship remains unknown. Martha Stewart divorced her husband, Andrew Stewart, in 1990 and has not remarried since. On the other hand, Hopkins divorced his second wife, Jennifer Lynton in 2002, and has been married to his third wife, Stella Arroyave, since 2003. The best guess is that Martha and Hopkins might have dated in the 90s, or the early 2000s before Hopkins found love in Arroyave.
Martha Stewart confessed to cheating on Andrew Stewart
Though Stewart only dated Hopinks after her divorce, she had another affair when she was married to Andrew Stewart. In the trailer of the new Netflix documentary, she says, "Young women, listen to my advice, if you're married and your husband starts to cheat on you, he's a piece of sh*t. Get out of that marriage." The producer then asks, "Didn’t you have an affair early on?" to which she responds, "Yeah, but I don’t think Andy ever knew about that."
Stewart was married to Andrew Stewart from 1961 to 1990. In 2020, she opened up about her divorce as she told People Magazine, "Getting divorced was a terrible thing for me, because we were the first to divorce in my family. And that we haven't spoken since the divorce is even more painful. But I'm very strong, and I'm very motivated to get on with life."
How to stream 'Martha'?
The official synopsis for 'Martha' on Netflix reads, "Told in her own words, this candid documentary charts the unstoppable rise, sudden fall and hard-won comeback of lifestyle icon Martha Stewart."
'Martha' premieres on Netflix this Wednesday, October 30. Membership to Netflix starts at $6.99/month (standard with ads).
'Martha' trailer