Martha Stewart Recalls Prison Stint Derailing Her Friendship With Ina Garten

Martha Stewart and Ina Garten have a difference of opinion when it comes to why their friendship fizzled out.

In a recent profile for The New Yorker , Garten explained how she and Stewart fell out of touch when the lifestyle guru started spending more time at her Bedford, New York, estate.

But home and garden maven Stewart remembers things a bit differently.

When I was sent off to Alderson Prison, she stopped talking to me, the Entertaining author told the publication. I found that extremely distressing and extremely unfriendly.

While Stewart has maintained her innocence over the years, the media mogul was found guilty for her part in an insider trading scheme in 2004 and ended up serving five months in a minimum security facility.

In the New Yorker piece, Garten firmly denied her fellow cookbook queens memory of how their friendship faded, however.

In any case, Stewarts longtime publicist, Susan Magrino, said that her client was not bitter at all about the relationship.

Theres no feud, Magrino told The New Yorker.

Though the pair are no longer close, Garten and Stewart do go way back.

It was the host of Martha Stewart Living who first connected Food Network favorite Garten with the editor who would help her publish her first cookbook, The Barefoot Contessa.

Stewart even contributed the forward to Gartens debut, though the intro comes off as a bit underhanded in hindsight.

In the forward, Stewart wrote, It took a while, but I finally understood what motivated Ina, realizing that here was a true kindred spirit with really similar but unique talents.