The Painful Way Martha Stewart's 'Second Marriage' Ended

Martha Stewart might be worth a lot of money, but that doesn't mean the homemaking icon's life has been a walk in the park. Stewart's prison stint for insider trading was certainly a stressor, and it may have caused the breakdown of her "second marriage." From 1993 to 2008, Stewart was romantically involved with Charles Simonyi, a Hungarian tech billionaire credited with inventing Microsoft's Excel and Word software. Stewart spoke about her former love in the 2024 Netflix documentary "Martha" and characterized the end of their coupling as highly upsetting. According to Stewart, Simonyi very abruptly informed the domestic diva about his future plans — which didn't include her. 

"We were visiting the president of Iceland and we were in bed," Stewart explained. Despite the romantic trappings, Simonyi was not in the mood for love, at least where Stewart was concerned. "He said, 'You know, Martha, I'm going to get married.' He said, 'I'm gonna get married to Lisa.' I said, 'Lisa who?' I mean, he hadn't told me a word."

Simonyi was referring to Lisa Persdotter, whose father is Swedish millionaire Jorgen Persson. The tech mogul claimed that he was forbidden from speaking with Stewart by Persdotter's parents, and that was the end of that. "I thought that was the most horrible thing a person could do," Stewart said in her documentary. "What a stupid thing to do to someone that you actually cared about. So, second 'divorce.'"

While Martha Stewart and Charles Simonyi remained in a relationship for about three years after her incarceration, the homemaker extraordinaire believes that her jail term was their undoing. As she said in the "Martha" documentary, "I was much more agile prior to prison. And my life became a little less exciting" (post-release).

Since her relationship with Simonyi ended, Martha Stewart hasn't been publicly linked to anyone else (unless you count her strange relationship with Mr. Snoop Dogg). In an interview with E! News, Stewart admitted that while she knew plenty of suitable bachelors and wouldn't mind having a partner, these gentlemen wanted something the TV host and author couldn't give. "I think they really want a woman who will take care of them," Stewart said, which doesn't exactly jibe with her lifestyle. 

According to Stewart, "I think the work has taken precedence over the romance. I have a hard time making room for both, and it's not the highest priority that I have a boyfriend." It's a situation that many highly successful and wealthy women encounter. As Cher famously told her mother, who was encouraging the icon to settle down with a rich man, "Mom, I am a rich man." While it's not fully clear what happened to Simonyi after his split with Stewart, the tech mogul is reportedly still married to Lisa Persdotter, and the couple share two children.