Martha Stewart Dressed as a Homeless Woman for Halloween — And the Caption Underneath Made It So Much Worse

Martha Stewart has spent decades teaching America how to do Halloween — the “fun, festive recipes,” the “unique craft ideas,” the tips on entertaining and hosting, as she put it herself this week. It is, she says, one of her favorite holidays of the year.

This year, the whole country was talking about her Halloween the next morning. Just not the way she planned.

On Saturday, Oct. 31, the 85-year-old lifestyle mogul shared a festive carousel of photos on Instagram. Two of the slides showed off the flameless, Halloween-themed candles from her exclusive QVC home collection. The third showed Stewart herself — dirt smeared across her face, a beanie pulled low, ripped jeans, a flannel and a sweater full of holes, according to Inc. In her hands was a brown clipboard. Scrawled across it in capital letters: “I AM HUNGRY HELP ME!!”

She was dressed as a homeless person.

The Slide That Stopped the Scroll

The post didn’t last long. Stewart deleted it shortly after it went up, NBC News reported, but screenshots were already racing across the internet, and the comments had already arrived.

“Why do you think poor people who are dying on the side of the road are a costume?” one person asked, according to The Guardian. “Read the room Martha, people are struggling out here,” wrote another. Critics called the look “out of touch” and “dystopian.” Even her own fans turned on her: on the r/MarthaStewart subreddit, longtime admirers said they were “disappointed,” The Cut reported.

PR expert Molly McPherson didn’t mince words. “This sartorial take on a homeless person is a lot,” she wrote, as quoted by the BBC. “Insulting? Demeaning? Confusing? All of the above.”

One commenter went straight for the obvious: “Who did she think would find that funny? Billionaires?”

But the costume was only half of it.

The Caption That Made It Worse

Look back at that carousel, because this was never just a Halloween photo. It was an ad.

“My QVC candles are perfect for Halloween!!!” Stewart wrote in the caption — on the same post as a picture of herself begging for food.

That single line turned a bad costume into something far stranger: a woman The Guardian estimates is worth $400 million, using a handwritten plea of hunger to help sell decorative candles. “I want to know the annual salary of everyone who was OK [with] it,” one commenter wrote. “Love Martha but how did no one on her PR team tell her that wasn’t a good idea?” asked another.

On Sunday, Stewart tried to explain. In a statement sent to Page Six, People and NBC News, she said she was “distressed” that her costume, “which was intended to bring more awareness to the very serious subject of homelessness, has offended people, which was never my intention.”

“Homelessness continues to remain one of America’s greatest challenges and ongoing crises, something that I care deeply about and I have spent a significant amount of time and effort supporting charities that combat this ongoing social epidemic,” she continued, adding that she was “committed to continuing to make a difference.”

As The Cut pointed out, there was no actual apology anywhere in it.

Three Statements, Three Places

What followed was a weekend of damage control in real time. Stewart addressed the backlash three different times, in three different venues, according to The Cut.

The second came not from a publicist but from Stewart herself, typing in the comments under a Just Jared post. “My costume was designed to bring the homeless and the hungry to everyone’s mind and boy it certainly did!!!” she wrote. “But not in the correct way, because I did not explain it and I am so sorry I care and I support causes who care. Do all of you???”

Then, on Sunday evening, came a Notes app screenshot posted to Instagram and signed simply “Martha.” This time, there was no hedging.

“It’s hard to admit when you’ve really screwed up,” she wrote. “My earlier statement didn’t go far enough. I know many people are suffering economically. Wearing a costume like I did was insensitive and not funny. I am very sorry.”

The reaction split down the middle. “Your choice reflects an utter disconnect from the desperation and suffering of so many people, especially those who are unhoused and hungry,” one critic replied, according to Page Six. Another user, quoted by Entertainment Weekly, asked: “You’re worth hundreds of millions and have a global platform. What are you doing to help the problem?”

Others rushed to her defense. “We always dressed as ‘Hobo’s’ for Halloween in the 1970’s. It was no big deal. Get over it people,” one fan wrote. “It was an offensive Halloween costume not murder,” said another, “and she’s taking accountability.”

The Detail Jimmy Kimmel Couldn’t Let Go

By Monday night, the story had reached late-night TV. On his first show since Halloween, Jimmy Kimmel told his audience he loves “seeing which famous people get hammered for their costumes the day after,” then turned to Stewart.

“The costume was actually only the second most ridiculous part of the post,” he said. “Zoom in on the caption… How does this woman wind up in that costume being photographed and posted? This is how you know your assistant hates you.”

Then he landed the line that sent viewers back to the screenshots for a closer look. The awareness explanation, he said, was “strike two.” “Here’s a good general rule of thumb, okay? Don’t use your Halloween costume to raise awareness of anything other than Halloween,” Kimmel said, “especially when you complete the look with a boyfriend sweater from The Row.”

The Row is the luxury label run by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Not exactly the place most people go for rags.

It was a reminder of just how far Stewart lives from the character she played. Only last month, on the “Other People’s Business” podcast, she revealed that she once took in $65 million a year from Kmart royalties alone, Page Six reported. She also said she “lost about a billion dollars” during the legal troubles of the early 2000s, when she was convicted in an insider trading scandal and served five months in prison, five more in home confinement and two years of supervised probation. “The lawyers took me to the cleaners,” she said. “I’m back. I’m pretty good.”

The Number Behind the Sign

Strip away the candles and the designer sweater, and what’s left is the line on the clipboard — and the people for whom it isn’t a costume.

The 2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that 745,652 people across the country were homeless, including 266,320 living on the street on a single night in January 2025.

Stewart built a lifestyle empire on getting the details just right. This Halloween, the presentation was a dirt-smudged face, a desperate handwritten plea and, just beneath it, a reminder that the candles are perfect for the season.

“I am hungry,” the sign said. “Help me.”

For hundreds of thousands of Americans, that isn’t a costume. And it doesn’t come off the morning after Halloween.