Martha Stewart's prison bestie upset over broken promise, claims TV host is 'back to narcissistic ways'
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Twenty years have passed since Martha Stewart exchanged her expansive estate for a confined prison cell following her notorious stock trading scandal.
However, Lisa Guarino, who described Stewart as her "best friend," has now revealed secrets about the domestic diva's time in incarceration, alleging that Stewart failed to keep a sincere promise, according to Radar Online.
Martha Stewart's former prison mate claims broken promise: 'All I got was a doughnut'
"She told my family they no longer needed to put money on my books because she was going to take care of me", Lisa Guarino, 62, a former inmate at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia, stated. "But Martha didn't keep her word. She gave me a doughnut – a big fat zero."
Guarino, previously known as "Boston's cocaine queenpin," recounted meeting the lifestyle guru in the most unexpected manner. "I pulled back a curtain and saw this naked white b**t right in front of me", she remembered it, laughing.
Despite the initial awkwardness, they quickly formed a bond through late-night laughter, communal meals, and navigating the challenges of life in the prison, which was ironically dubbed "Camp Cupcake."
Upon Stewart's arrival at the prison on October 8, 2004, for a five-month sentence, she traded the opulence of her 153-acre farm in Katonah, New York, for a starkly different setting. Rather than a sprawling three-story mansion, she was assigned to a small room designed for two, complete with bunk beds.
"It was horrifying," Stewart, 83, recalled in 2017 during a podcast hosted by Katie Couric. "It's a very, very awful thing." She encountered hostility right away.
Ex-inmate Evie Litwok described her experience in a piece for Talk Poverty stating, "In Alderson, everyone was required to work in the kitchen for their first 90 days. That is, everyone but Martha Stewart, who requested but was denied kitchen duty. I suspect she was refused because this chore might have given her an inkling of pleasure within the miserable prison environment."
"She was assigned instead to the humiliating task of mopping the floors and cleaning the toilets of the warden and other higher-ups," she added.
Lisa Guarino claims Martha Stewart betrayed their prison friendship
Lisa Guarino mentioned that she served as Martha Stewart's mentor in navigating prison life, showing her how to make edible meals such as "dirty pasta" and impromptu pies from basic commissary items.
"Martha was amazed at what you could do with a microwave," Guarino said. However, prison life wasn't solely about camaraderie and culinary experiments. Stewart's affluence and celebrity status singled her out.
Guarino alleged that one evening, a hardened inmate known as "Swish" made threats against her life. "Martha was terrified. If it weren't for me stepping in, she could have been seriously hurt or worse."
Guarino stated that the media mogul relied greatly on her support during their time behind bars, even referring to her as "the best friend I've ever had."
It is reported that Stewart threw a farewell party for Guarino upon her transfer to a drug treatment program, which solidified what Guarino believed to be an unbreakable bond. However, once the television personality was released, their relationship fell apart.
"I went to see her at an event promoting her 100th cookbook," Guarino said bitterly. "She ignored me completely and left through a side exit. I was offended."
Guarino, who once cooked for Stewart, protected her, and even saved her life, now feels abandoned and betrayed. "I believed we were friends," she lamented. "But once she got back to her world, she went right back to her narcissistic ways."
Although Stewart has described her time in prison as "horrifying" and "awful," she has not responded to Guarino's allegations or the supposed pledge to assist her.
Currently, the former inmate who supported Stewart is left pondering whether their bond was genuine or merely a survival strategy in the tough environment of prison life.
