Martha Stewart Reveals She’s Been Struck by Lightning Three Times: ‘I’m Just So Powerful’

• During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Martha Stewart revealed she’s been struck by lightning three times.

• She said the feeling of getting struck is “horrible,” but she was able to make light of it, saying, “I just attract electricity. I’m so powerful.”

• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the likelihood of a person getting struck by lightning in a given year is only around one in 500,000.

It’s safe to say most people go through their entire lives without getting struck by lightning. So how is it that Martha Stewart has managed to encounter the natural phenomenon not once, not twice, but three times?

Take your time, we’re still trying to process it too.

The 80-year-old lifestyle mogul recently appeared on The Ellen Degeneres Show where she played a game called, “Where’s the Lie, Martha?” which is very similar to “Two Truths and a Lie.” Stewart had to read aloud three statements about herself, and DeGeneres had to guess which two were true, and which one was false.

The first card read:

• “I’ve been struck by lightning three times.”

• “I’m going to be a shark on the next season of Shark Tank.”

• “I did a headstand on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

DeGeneres thought for sure Stewart landed a role on Shark Tank and that the other two sounded pretty outlandish. As it turns out, those were the truths.

Naturally, DeGeneres was shocked (I mean, same!). She had no clue Stewart had been struck by lightning, let alone thrice. “I mean, it’s like, crazy. I think it actually is good for you,” the lifestyle guru joked. “If it doesn't kill you, I think it's good for you!” (What doesn't kill you makes you stronger? Right? 😅)

That's not to say the strikes were pleasant experiences. Stewart’s one word to describe the feeling? “Horrible,” she said.

“Once, it came out of my water faucet,” she recalled. “I was leaning against an iron sink. I saw the lightning go down the pipe out in my garden and then it came back up through the water and hit me right in my stomach—threw me on the floor! My husband found me, I was alive but not very comfortable.”

Stewart went on to recount the second time lightning found her. “A lightning bolt came through my skylight in my house,” she said. Although it was a very serious incident, she couldn’t help but joke again. “I just attract electricity. I’m so powerful,” she said.

Sadly, before Stewart could detail her third lightning encounter, the pair got distracted and pulled into a different discussion. But at least she's still alive to tell the tales.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), lightning is one of the leading causes of weather-related fatalities, but the likelihood of it striking a person in a given year is only around one in 500,000, depending on the circumstances and risk factors at hand.

Between the years 2009 and 2018, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported an annual average of 27 lightning fatalities in the U.S. Only about 10% of people who are struck by lightning die, per the NWS, and the remaining 90% are typically left with various degrees of disability.

With that being said, you can look at Stewart’s situation in one of two ways—she’s either terribly misfortunate, or very, very lucky. Either way, the story is quite shocking (we had to!).

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