Martha Stewart Reveals She Made $65 Million a Year From ‘Very Fabulous’ Kmart Deal

Martha Stewart just broke down her finances, revealing the jaw-dropping amount of money made in just one year back in the 1980s.

Appearing on MasterClass Founder and CEO David Rogier‘s Other People’s Business podcast on Tuesday, October 6, the lifestyle guru, 85, says her first major deal with Kmart.

“Kmart came along, and they wanted me to be a lifestyle expert for them. They wanted me to be an influencer. They didn’t know that word, but I knew that I could really influence a huge [group],” recalled the savvy businesswoman, calling the chain the “biggest retailer in America at the time.”

“They signed this very fabulous deal with a huge royalty that I would get on every sale of every product that I designed,” she continued, adding that the retailer picked up the $20 million price tag for advertising.

While she told host Rogier that Kmart had no idea how successful the partnership would be, the entrepreneur said they “took a chance” on her and wound up selling “hundreds of millions of dollars of product.”

“Kmart was my first big money and it was a lot of money,” she said, revealing how much she made on the backend deals. “I was clearing $65 million a year in royalties. Because we were selling close to $2 billion worth of merchandise. That’s a lot of money.”

That success, she said, is what helped her fund her “whole business,” including her magazine. “That was an amazing thing,” continued Stewart, who said it’s a lot harder to get royalties like that now.

Instead, she explained that a lot of influencers are paid with products, instead of money, claiming she can get $40,000 worth of clothing by attending a fashion show.

Prior to the Kmart deal, the Martha Stewart Living host told Rogier she was making “a little bit more than a million dollars” a year with her catering business. “I was killing myself, physically,” she recalled of the demands, calling it “hard, hard work” that was “24/7.”

Giving some additional insight into her income, Stewart shared that while she received an advance of $100,000 and royalties for her first cookbook, she became “much more valuable” after it flew off the shelves.

She estimated that she also made more than $5 million a year from her magazine, while crediting TV shows and appearances with being free advertisements for her other ventures. Of her constant collaborations with Snoop Dogg, meanwhile, she said those have only “quadrupled” her audience.

Commercials, she added, are also “very lucrative.”

When asked by Rogier, 43, why she doesn’t have her own private jet, however, Stewart brought up her insider-trading scandal. She, of course, spent five months in prison after being convicted of conspiracy, obstruction, and lying to federal investigators.

“I fell in a hole and I lost about a billion dollars in my legal problems,” she explained. “The lawyers took me to the cleaners and they were horrible.”

Stewart added, “But I’m back. I’m pretty good.”