Martha Stewart gave birth to her daughter Alexis Stewart in a hallway of a New York hospital.

Medical staff were oblivious that the 84-year-old lifestyle guru was in active labour and thought she had more time before she welcomed TV presenter Alexis into the world in September 1965.

Martha - who has her daughter with ex-husband Andrew Stewart - recalled to The Sunday Times newspaper: "It happened very fast, so I was hardly in the hospital gown, but I remember that miserable hospital gown very well.

"I gave birth in the hallway because they didn't believe that I was giving birth, they thought I had more time."

Elsewhere, Martha - who divorced Andrew in 1990 after almost three decades of marriage - said she and Alexis, 60, are more "friends" than mom and daughter.

Asked if she had a fraught relationship with Alexis growing up, Martha said on a December 2025 episode of QVC+'s 50+ and Unfiltered podcast: "Oh, not growing up so much as later in life. Even now. We talk. I would say we're friends.

"And I'm sure she loves me, sort of. But I definitely love her. And we do lots of things together."

And Martha pointed out that she and her only child are "very different" people, saying: "I'm an extrovert, she is not."

Alexis welcomed her first child, a daughter named Jude, in 2011, via a gestational surrogate, and her second child, a son named Truman, in 2012, also via a gestational surrogate.

As the radio presenter does not address Martha as "mom", her children do not call the businesswoman "grandma".

In the same episode of QVC+'s 50+ and Unfiltered podcast, Martha explained: "They've called me Martha since they were born. And all their friends call me Martha. None of them call me Mrs. Stewart. I'm not a Mrs. Stewart.

"My daughter calls me Martha. She's always called me Martha."

The TV star says Truman swears just like Alexis.

Martha said: "I have a swearing banshee of a daughter. And the grandson also swears. He's only 13!"

The Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia founder thinks it is a "phenomenal thing" that she can spend so much time with Jude and Truman.