Even after serving a short prison sentence for a stock scandal and fraud that ended in March of 2005, Martha Stewart is still beloved and respected around the world as a successful businesswoman, entrepreneur and homemaking expert. She currently hosts her own T.V. program, Martha, and recently appeared on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. Lately she has narrowly focused her attention and dedicated her time and energy to rebuilding and fine-tuning her businesses since getting out of prison.

Martha was born in New Jersey on August 3, 1941 as Martha Helen Kostyra, daughter of Edward and Martha Kostyra.  As a young girl she learned how to cook, sew, can, preserve, and garden—skills which became the key to her eventual professional success. As a young women Martha actually pursued a career in modeling and appeared in various magazines as well as T.V. commercials.

While she attended New York’s Barnard College on a scholarship—switching her majors from chemistry to art/European history to architectural history—Martha met and married Andy Stewart. Their first child was born, daughter Alexis, in 1965. Two years later Martha became a stockbroker for about six years, leaving due to an alleged scandal with several firms.

Her rise to fame continued with the release of her own houseware line called Martha Stewart Everyday. The 1990 launch of her magazine Martha Stewart Living and further appearances on television also contributed to Stewart’s rising fame. Martha divorced her husband in 1990 as well. Then she started Martha Stewart Omnimedia, a multimedia company launched in 1997 with the help of her business partner Sharon Patrick. Two years later, it went public on the New York Stock Exchange, and by extension made Martha an official billionaire.

In the early 2000s, Martha Stewart’s career and businesses took a bit of a stab with charges against her involving a stock scandal with the sales of her shares in ImClone (a pharmaceutical company). She was convicted for lying to investigators, obstruction of justice and eventually Stewart pleaded guilty to fraud, accepting a five-month prison sentence.

Since her release on March 4, 2005, Martha has worked hard to revive her businesses that suffered as a result of her charges and litigation. She has done so successfully, gaining back her loyal fans and then some—almost as if the scandal and time in prison made her more famous.

She also came back with her programs Martha and her version of The Apprentice, both shows were produced by British producer Mark Burnett and premiered in September 2005.

Stewart also appeared again on daily talk shows, wrote and released more books, and brought out a line of houses through her Omnimedia corporation.