At 81, Martha Stewart shines on a cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition

Martha Stewart looks phenomenal on the cover of this month’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, donning a sleek white one-piece and billowing orange blouse. Her hair is perfectly tousled. Her smile is seductive. She’s a natural.

At 81, Stewart is the oldest woman to be featured as a cover girl on the sports magazine’s coveted edition, (stealing the title from Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, who at 74 was a cover model last year.) Stewart joins Megan Fox, Kim Petras, and Brooks Nader as one of four cover models this year.

Stewart is a master of maintaining her relevance. She spent five months in prison in 2004 for lying to the feds during an insider trading investigation. When she got out, she didn’t give up on her career or hide on the periphery of pop culture. She made a comeback, writing a business handbook, The Martha Rules, and hosting a talk show on NBC from 2005 to 2012. In 2015, the intrepid entrepreneur sold Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for $353 million to Sequential Brands. The following year, Martha and Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party debuted on VH1, introducing her to a new audience and endearing her to her old one.

Her warm and fuzzy relationship with Snoop Dog melted away her ice queen reputation. Earlier this year a Skechers commercial featuring Stewart getting a fake tattoo of Snoop on her arm sealed the deal. She defied the odds and became likable, relevant, hip, and relatable. She evolved.

Sports Illustrated is probably banking that Stewart’s reinvention mojo will rub off on them. SI printed its first swimsuit edition in 1964. Fifty-nine years later it’s searching for relevance in a pop-culture zeitgeist that’s trying to shift from objectifying women to empowering them.

Ten years ago an 80-year-woman — heck, anyone over 50 — wouldn’t have nary a shot at landing a Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover. Former Ford model Kathy Jacobs was the first woman over 50 to land the swimsuit edition cover in 2021. Stewart, also a former model, puts in the work. She does Pilates three times a week and keeps regular appointments at Mario Badescu in Manhattan. At a time when Gen X women are deep in perimenopause, this is aspirational, not because it proves that a woman over 80 can command the male gaze. But, more importantly, because it reinforces that as long as we feel good, there is nothing we are too old for.

Stewart was well into her 60s when she was released from prison and started rebuilding her career. Landing a cover of Sports Illustrated swim probably wasn’t a part of her grand plan. Still, isn’t it nice it was in the cards for her?