Martha Stewart Landed A Sports Illustrated Cover – And Her Press Rollout Was Really Bad

Martha Stewart has always been genetically blessed. The lifestyle mogul, 81, began her career as a model and is still posting viral “thirst traps” to her Instagram account well into her golden years.

So, when Sports Illustrated announced on Monday that Stewart will be gracing the latest cover of the magazine’s famed Swimsuit Issue — officially making her the “the oldest SI Swimsuit cover model in the publication’s history” — it made sense. Stewart is still hot.

The feat should feel triumphant. But while debuting her cover exclusively with the Today show on Monday, Stewart was laser-focused on spreading messages that some who have experienced eating disorders, or feel insecure about their own aging bodies, may find frustrating.

Stewart explained to Today co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb that the magazine approached her about doing the cover in November 2022, just a few weeks before the photo shoot was scheduled to take place, at the end of January.

“That was kind of a request that I’ve never had before,” Stewart recalled. “To be on the cover at my age was a challenge. And I think I met the challenge.”

She then went into detail about how she met this “challenge” using rhetoric straight out of diet culture — or a system of beliefs that equates thinness with health and moral virtue, classifies certain ways of eating as good or bad, and encourages weight loss at all costs.

“I didn’t starve myself,” Stewart said as she explained how she prepared for the shoot. “But I didn’t eat any bread or pasta for a couple of months. I went to Pilates every other day and that was great; I’m still going to Pilates every other day ’cause it’s so great. And I just, I live a clean life anyway — good diet and good exercise and healthy skin care and all of that stuff.”