Martha Stewart Shared Intimate Throwback Photos & The Sweetest Story About Her Daughter Alexis

When it comes to gardening, Martha Stewart can’t help but feel a little sentimental. The lifestyle guru just shared the sweetest throwback photos and story about daughter Alexis, 58, in a rare new interview — and they’re all about gardening.

In an interview on Instagram for her lifestyle brand this week, Stewart talked about her first garden in Middlefield, Mass. and how she involved her daughter in it. “I got my daughter to understand all the plants in the garden, too. And she and I made up songs about the plants and about every flower in the garden, we made a song about. It was nuts.”

She also shared a throwback photo of herself holding Alexis’s hand. Alexis was just a little girl, smiling in her cream sweater, denim skirt, and tights. They are standing next to towering trees in the adorable snapshot.

The Martha Knows Best star, who is also grandma to Alexis’s kids Jude, 13, and Truman, 12, doesn’t often talk about her only daughter, who she shares with ex-husband Andrew Stewart. They’ve had a tumultuous relationship through the years, including when Alexis wrote a tell-all book about her mom in 2011, called Whateverland: Learning to Live Here.

But in recent years, things have seemingly been going better. Stewart told PEOPLE in 2020 that she sometimes felt too busy to be a present mom.

“I was busy. At the time, Alexis was going to school in Westport, and I was commuting to New York,” she told the outlet, explaining that she started an at-home catering business during Alexis’s childhood “which was extremely time-consuming.”

Alexis Stewart and her mom Martha Stewart at Press Conference, Martha her Mom at Press Conference, undated. Photo by: Diane Cohen/Everett Collection (PECA003 HC105)
Alexis Stewart and her mom Martha Stewart at Press Conference, Martha her Mom at Press Conference, undated. Photo by: Diane Cohen/Everett Collection (PECA003 HC105)

“One thing Alexis learned from that was how to cook,” Stewart said. “She’s a phenomenal cook and baker. I tried to involve her in everything, but the minute she could leave home and go to boarding school, she did.”

She added, “Our relationship has always been a difficult mother-daughter relationship. Difficult, but she would do anything for me, and I would do anything for her.”

At the end of the day, that’s the most important thing.

Before you go, check out these celebrities who are parents of only children.

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