Martha Stewart candidly opened up about all facets of her life in her Netflix documentary, including her relationship with billionaire businessman Charles Simonyi.
Stewart, 83, dated Simonyi, 76, for 15 years following her divorce from Andrew Stewart. They even stayed together while Stewart spent 150 days in jail in 2004 for charges related to conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
However, their relationship collapsed in 2008 when Simonyi left Stewart for another woman — the same thing that happened to her with Andrew.
In her documentary “Martha,” Stewart called Simonyi a “total genius” and said she lived “a different kind of life” when she was dating the businessman.
So who is Martha Stewart’s ex boyfriend? Keep reading for everything you need to know about Charles Simonyi.
He’s from Hungary
Simonyi was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary. His father was a physicist and his mother was a language teacher, according to 2006 profile on Simonyi from the Seattle Times.
When he turned 17, Simonyi moved to Denmark with a short-term visa to work as a programmer. He later relocated to the United States and studied math and engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, before earning his doctorate in computer science from Stanford University.
Simonyi officially became a US citizen in 1982.
“My dream was to get out of Hungary, go to the West and be free,” he once told reporters, per the Seattle Times.
He worked at Microsoft
Simonyi joined Microsoft in 1981, just six years after the company was formed by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. He was Microsoft’s 40th employee.
While at Microsoft, Simonyi helped lead the development of Microsoft Word and Excel. He went on to become one of Microsoft’s highest-ranking developers. He was the chief architect for 12 years.
In 2002, Simonyi left Microsoft to co-found his own software company, called Intentional Software Corporation. The business developed platforms for productivity apps.
Simonyi returned to Microsoft in 2017 when the company acquired Intentional Software Corporation. It’s unknown how much money Simonyi got for the sale.
According to Forbes, Simonyi became a billionaire in 2015. As of Nov. 2024, he’s worth $7.3 billion and is the 398th richest billionaire in the world.
He started dating Martha after her divorce
Simonyi and Stewart became friend in the early 1990s, which was when Stewart got divorced from her husband after nearly 30 years of marriage. The exes, who had a daughter named Alexis, split up after Andrew had an affair with Stewart’s ex-assistant.
“Young women, listen to my advice: if you’re married and you think you’re happily married and your husband starts to cheat on you, he’s a piece of sh-t,” she said, reflecting on her marriage to Andrew. “And look at him. It’s a piece of sh-t and get out of it. Get out of that marriage.”
Stewart did admit, however, that years earlier she kissed a stranger in the Duomo in Florence, Italy, during her honeymoon.
“I would’ve never broken up a marriage for it. It was nothing,” she said. “It was like the kiss in the cathedral.”
The celebrity chef and Simonyi, meanwhile, were rumored to have started dating in 1993. Four years later, Simonyi spoke about Stewart publicly for the first time, calling her his “good friend” in an interview with the Seattle Times.
The pair went to several events together in the late 1990s, including a dinner for the Hungarian president at the White House and film producer Joel Silver’s wedding in Italy, per New York Magazine.
Stewart said in her doc, “We started to go everywhere together. It was a different kind of life. He had his own jet, building a boat in Germany, and I started working on the boat with him.”
He rarely visited Martha when she went to jail
Simonyi stood by Stewart during her highly-publicized trial that led to her going to prison.
In 2004, she pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice following a five-week trial.
She spent five months behind bars at the Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia in 2004 and 2005 for lying about her sale of ImClone shares.
Simonyi reportedly told the Seattle Times that it was a “sad day” for Stewart when she was found guilty. He also said that he disagreed with the verdict and that Stewart “was being made an example” by the US attorney.
While Simonyi was supportive of Stewart during that period of her life, he only visited her in prison once, she claimed in her documentary.
Stewart said her then-boyfriend did not “like hanging out with somebody in jail.” The documentary also showed a letter Stewart wrote to Simonyi from prison that read, “I’ve not got an email or even a note from you for so long. I’d love to hear from you.”
After being released from jail in 2005, Stewart and Simonyi continued their relationship for another three years.
He went to space
Simonyi dreamed of space travel since he was a child. In April 2007, those dreams became a reality when he embarked on his first of two trips to outer space.
Stewart was supportive of Simonyi’s journey. She even flew to Kazakhstan to witness Simonyi’s launch in 2007. He was aboard the Soyuz TMA-10 and became the fifth space tourist and second Hungarian in space.
He returned to space in March 2009 on the Soyuz TMA-14.
He left Martha for another woman
Stewart revealed in her doc how Simonyi ruthlessly broke up with her in 2008.
“We had this elaborate trip planned. We were visiting the President of Iceland and we were in bed and he said, ‘You know Martha, I’m going to get married, I’m gonna get married to Lisa,’” Stewart recalled.
“I said, ‘Lisa who?’ He hadn’t told me a word,” she added.
Simonyi, according to Stewart, also said to her in that conversation, “By the way, her parents don’t want me to ever speak to you again.”
Stewart told producers her split from Simonyi felt like her “second divorce.”
“I thought that was the most horrible thing a person could do. How can a man who spent 15 years with me do that? What a stupid thing to do to someone that you actually care about,” she said.
Six months after dumping Stewart, Simonyi got engaged to Lisa Persdotter, the daughter of a Swedish millionaire. She was 32 years younger than Simonyi.
They got married in November 2008 and had two daughters together.
Martha would go on to note that she has difficulty with expressing emotions in a relationship.
“It doesn’t interest me so much to know ‘Oh Charles, how do you feel this second?’ I don’t care actually,” she said. Instead, she’s far more interested in what people do and what men accomplish.
“Martha” is streaming on Netflix.
