Fighting back! When an Instagram user deemed Martha Stewart “tone deaf” for sharing a photo of her lobster dinner amid the coronavirus quarantine, the lifestyle maven addressed the dig in a lengthy reply and insisted she’s a “good” person.
Stewart enjoyed the lobster in celebration of her 79th birthday on Monday, August 3, as part of an outdoor celebration at her Maine home with some family and friends. She shared a photo of it, along with two photos of her tablescape, and noted that the gathering was held in the “back driveway,” so guests could observe social distancing rules amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Still, the naysayer apparently took issue with Stewart’s choice of dinner fare given the current health crisis and the fact that many people are currently unemployed. “I’ve always loved you. Loved your show. But do you ever feel this is all a little tone deaf!” the user wrote. “There are people lining up for hours for a bag of potatoes! #let them eat cake.”
In an effort to set the record straight, the Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party cohost wrote a lengthy reply. “The lobsters were $4 each from a fisherman who was happy to be getting more than from his regular buyer,” she stated, implying she paid more for the crustaceans than was necessary. “We had potatoes from our own garden. And corn from a local farm which we support.”
Stewart, who had another birthday celebration on Sunday, August 4, also noted that she feeds all of the people who are working on her property and does her part to be as environmentally friendly as possible. “We do not waste. We compost. We work,” she stated. “We give generously to many organizations.”
The Bakeaway Camp With Martha Stewart host then addressed the coronavirus crisis directly and clarified that she’s not taking it lightly. “We care about the pandemic and observe healthy living and social distancing etc and we wear masks,” she added. “We are good people.”
Stewart came under fire in April for referring to the people she’s been quarantined with as “detainees,” but she stuck by the moniker. “I’ve been calling my housemates ‘detainees,’” she declared during a discussion of Michael Rips’ new book, The Golden Flea: A Story of Obsession and Collecting, via Pennsylvania’s Midtown Scholar Bookstore’s Crowdcast livestream at the time. “I’ve gotten so much criticism for calling them detainees, but I have to feed them dinner!”