Martha Stewart is addressing backlash about her Halloween costume as a “hungry” homeless person.
Over the weekend, the 85-year-old lifestyle mogul posted and quickly deleted a picture on Instagram showing herself in tattered clothes with dirt on her face, holding a piece of cardboard that read, “I AM HUNGRY HELP ME!!” according to Page Six.
Although she deleted the post, the picture was circulated online as social media users criticized Stewart for seemingly mocking poor people, especially as U.S. homelessness has risen in recent years. Online comments called the multimillionaire businesswoman “tone deaf” and “disrespectful.”
In a since-deleted statement, captured by Popbase and other outlets, Stewart apologized for her “insensitive” costume.
She wrote: “It’s hard to admit when you’ve really screwed up. My earlier statement didn’t go far enough.
“I know many people are economically struggling. Wearing a costume like I did was insensitive and not funny. I’m very sorry.”
A few hours earlier, Stewart said in a statement to NBC News that she did not mean any harm with her costume.
“I am distressed that my Halloween costume yesterday, which was intended to bring more awareness to the very serious subject of homelessness, has offended people, which was never my intention,” she told the outlet.
Stewart, who is estimated to be worth more than $400 million, went on to say that homelessness “continues to remain one of America’s greatest challenges and ongoing crises, something that I care deeply about and I have spent a significant amount of time and effort supporting charities that combat this ongoing social epidemic.”
“I am committed to continuing to make a difference,” she added.
Stewart’s picture of her costume seemed to be shared accidentally, as it was included in a carousel promoting her candle collection on QVC. In the caption of the post, she wrote, “My QVC candles are perfect for Halloween!!!”
The TV personality’s statement has gone on to spark even more backlash in online circles, as people point out that Stewart did not apologize for offending people with her costume.
“Aah yes, my favourite form of apology: ‘I’m sorry you were offended,’” one person noted on a Reddit discussion thread dedicated to the incident. Another added: “In what world could anyone, even the most out-of-touch rich person alive, think this is okay?”
Another suggested, “Oh it’s for advocacy, huh? Prove it. Show us a fat donation to your local shelters or other non-profits to support unhoused folks.”
On X, one person wrote: “Care? Shame on you, Martha. That’s so disgusting! You’re being disrespectful and hurtful [of] people who have been homeless.”
“Martha, this is incredibly tone deaf, disappointing, childish, and you need to cough up some change to organizations to help ease this clownery you pulled,” another said.
Representatives for Stewart did not return The Independent’s request for comment.

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Postmenopausal women who use testosterone therapy could face a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular problems, new research suggests.
The research, presented at the 2026 annual meeting of The Menopause Society last month in San Diego, looked at more than 6,000 postmenopausal women age 45 and older, comparing those who received testosterone therapy with those who did not. Women with a history of cardiovascular disease were excluded.
Among women receiving testosterone, 3.8% experienced a first-time cardiovascular event compared with 0.5% of women who were not receiving the treatment, according to The Menopause Society.
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Those events included heart attack, stroke, heart failure and other cardiovascular problems.
Testosterone is a sex hormone produced by the ovaries and adrenal glands that plays a role in sexual desire, as well as muscle and bone health, mood and cognition, according to Cleveland Clinic.
Anna Cabeca, a Dallas-based board-certified OB-GYN and menopause expert, told Fox News Digital that the differences between the two groups — women who received testosterone and those who did not — deserve attention.
“The difference between 3.8% and 0.5% is certainly significant enough to warrant attention, but we need to be careful about what these numbers actually tell us,” said Cabeca, who was not involved in the study.
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That amounts to about 38 cardiovascular events per 1,000 women receiving testosterone compared with five per 1,000 women who were not, the doctor noted.
For women considering testosterone therapy, Cabeca said doctors should look at the patient’s overall health, including heart history, blood pressure, cholesterol, metabolic health, medications and family history.
“Sexual health is an essential part of overall health, and women deserve to have their concerns about libido, arousal and intimacy taken seriously, particularly during and after menopause,” she added.
While testosterone can improve sexual desire and satisfaction in appropriately selected postmenopausal women, the possible benefits should be weighed against potential risks, Cabeca advised.
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In cases when testosterone is appropriate, she favors careful dosing, monitoring and regular checks of a patient’s symptoms and lab results.
There are important limitations to the new findings, the researchers acknowledged.
The study was observational, meaning the researchers looked at outcomes among women who were already receiving testosterone rather than assigning the treatment in a controlled trial.
As a result, the study can show a link between testosterone use and cardiovascular events, but cannot prove that the treatment caused them.
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Women who received testosterone may also have differed from those who did not in ways that affected their heart risk, including age, blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol levels or other health factors, Cabeca said.
“This is an important safety signal that deserves further investigation, not definitive evidence of causation,” she added.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for comment.

Nearly a decade after Hugh Hefner’s death, his widow is still dealing with the alleged abuse she experienced being married to him for almost five years — and fighting over private images she says were taken without her consent.
“I had to have sex with strangers I didn’t even know,” Crystal Hefner, 40, told Page Six in an exclusive interview. “It was humiliating. It was embarrassing.”
In February, her attorney, Gloria Allred, announced regulatory complaints in California and Illinois over the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation’s handling of his private archive, including approximately 3,000 scrapbooks allegedly containing intimate photographs.
Crystal said some images were taken without consent and raised concerns about possible images of minors. Hefner’s sons Cooper and Marston, whose mother is Kimberley Conrad, disputed that implication.
Crystal said she wanted women entrusted with the material — and intimate or nonconsensual images destroyed.
“I think he kept all of this, all these women in there as trophies,” she told The Post.
“He would have some just named, you know, Monday, Wednesday, and it would be a naked woman. It’s disgusting.
“He had a sex book, a black book where he logged everybody he slept with.”
Crystal, a model and former Playboy Playmate, was 26 when she married Hefner in 2012. She remained his wife until his death in 2017 at age 91.
“I came from a broken home. I didn’t have a father,” she said. “Hef chose people he could easily manipulate.”
Her accounts of being pressured into sex echo allegations made over the past decade by other former Hefner girlfriends, including “Girls Next Door” stars Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt.
Crystal said Hefner built his Playboy empire by collecting women with “broken wings” before subjecting them to “humiliation ritual(s).”
Even his longtime secretary Mary recognized the pattern, according to Crystal.
“Mary told me that … Hef chooses the broken ones. He collects the ones with the broken wings,” she said.
“He should have been getting us all a therapist instead of a one-way ticket to his bedroom.”
Being married to Hef and living in the Playboy Mansion bore little resemblance to the image of a carefree pleasure palace presented to the public.
“It was like a humiliation ritual up there. And all orchestrated by this man,” said Crystal, who still struggles with understanding why she married Heffner.
“It’s something I think about every day. If I could go back … I absolutely wouldn’t have.”
On an Oct. 14 podcast episode of “Consider Before Consuming,” Crystal criticized Hefner for dating twin sisters while in a relationship with her, saying “the incest was okay for him” in reference to his involvement with the siblings.
She also alleged that Hefner treated women as sex conquests and had a particular interest in sleeping with both a Playmate and her daughter.
“It was kind of a game for him.”
Crystal also took aim at comedian Jon Lovitz, calling him “one of the biggest pervs” in Hollywood and claiming he was the Playboy Mansion’s “No. 1 customer,” during Tuesday’s episode of the “Lisa Guerrero Unleashed” podcast.
“He would be up there all the time,” she said.
“His eyes would go front to back [looking at] all the women that walked through the door at the party.”
Lovitz’s rep did not respond to Page Six’s request for comment. In a video obtained by Page Six, he joked that he took the “No. 1 customer” claim as a “compliment” and said that “Hugh Hefner was one of the nicest, most generous people.”
Hefner’s reputation took a major hit in 2015, when Holly Madison — one of the three original stars of E!’s “The Girls Next Door” — published her revealing memoir, “Down the Rabbit Hole.”
“I learned Hef was the manipulator,” she wrote. “He pitted us against one another.”
Hefner rejected her account, accusing some former partners of choosing to “rewrite history in an attempt to stay in the spotlight.”
Fellow “Girls Next Door” star Bridget Marquardt later described pressure surrounding her first sexual encounter with him.
“I was hoping that I could just observe and not participate,” she recalled on “Girls Next Level” in 2022.
Her assessment of her time with Hefner was nevertheless mixed: That same year, she said “98 percent” of her mansion experience was positive.
Kendra Wilkinson, the third original star, told People in 2024: “Playboy really messed my whole life up,” describing deep regret over her relationship with Hefner.
Hefner, however, insisted his lifestyle was authentic and described it as one of “tremendous satisfaction.”
“It doesn’t get better than this, and I know it,” he told CNN in a 2010 interview.
“What you see is the real deal. I mean, the life is essentially who I am.”
By the final years of his silk pajama-clad life, however, Hefner’s business was in decline.
Playboy’s circulation had fallen from roughly 5.6 million in 1975 to about 800,000 by 2015, ABC News reported. The magazine, which had featured sexy centerfolds and naked celebrities since its 1953 debut, dropped nudity from its pages in 2016.
It reversed course the following year.
The mansion sold for $100 million in 2016, half its original asking price, under a deal that allowed Hefner to keep living there until his death.
Inside, according to Crystal’s previous accounts, the glamour had given way to dust, mold and neglect. She described the property in 2024 as “rundown and gross.”
The widow has found common ground with one of Michael Jackson’s accusers over the pain of seeing their alleged abusers idolized, and the two share a therapist, she said.
“I thought how hard that must be to watch somebody that hurt you so bad be put on a pedestal and still revered and glamorized,” she said.
“I just hope that in 2026, we do not glamorize predators.”
She said her decision to speak out now about her marriage to Hefner was driven by concern for other women.
“You don’t have to be in the Playboy Mansion with Hugh Hefner to experience abuse,” she said.
“It happens everywhere every day.”

A growing body of research links coffee to all kinds of health benefits—it may protect your heart, lower liver cancer risk, and even lengthen your life. But where does that leave the folks who prefer drinking tea?
The findings of a recent study present good news: Tea also has a seat at the health-boosting beverage table.
Meet the Experts: Christopher Davis, M.D., chief cardiologist at ; Michelle Routhenstein, M.S., R.D., preventive cardiology dietitian atEntirelyNourished.com; Arash Bereliani, M.D., board-certified cardiologist and medical director of the Beverly Hills Institute for Cardiology and Preventive Medicine.
The findings, published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, actually aren’t the first of their kind—regularly drinking tea has its own studied health benefits, even if they may not be as talked-about as those of coffee. This research simply adds to the drink’s credibility and lets you breathe a little easier if your morning beverage of choice leans the tea route. Below, cardiologists and a dietitian weigh in on the findings and share how they recommend taking your cup.
What did the study find?
Researchers observed a large group of nearly 486,000 adults in China and asked them about their tea-drinking habits. After nine years, they looked into participants’ heart health to see how the tea may have affected it.
They discovered that people who drank tea regularly had about an 11% lower risk of developing vascular disease—including heart disease, stroke, and peripheral artery disease—than people who didn’t. Black tea showed a more consistent benefit than green tea, and while you may think the stronger the tea, the stronger the results, that wasn’t the case here: Moderate-strength tea was shown to have the greatest effect. And more tea wasn’t necessarily better, either. Weekly drinkers who sipped six to eight cups per day had the lowest risk.
Temperature appeared to matter, too. “One finding stood out to me: People who drank their tea very hot actually had a higher risk,” says Christopher Davis, M.D., chief cardiologist at . According to the study, those who preferred their tea “burning hot” had a 16% higher risk of vascular disease.
And, like many things in the nutrition world, it’s not only about what you’re eating or drinking: The rest of what you do each day plays a big role as well. In fact, the study found that people with the lowest vascular disease risk shared these three things in common: They drank tea regularly, didn’t smoke, and were highly active—folks who fit this “lifestyle profile” had a roughly 45% lower heart disease risk than those with none of those habits. This implies that tea wasn’t the only magic worker: Lifestyle mattered, too.
How tea may lower heart disease risk
“Tea is rich in polyphenols, mainly flavonoids, which are plant compounds that support the lining of your blood vessels,” explains Dr. Davis. “That lining, called the endothelium, makes nitric oxide, which helps blood vessels relax and keeps blood flowing well. Flavonoids appear to support nitric oxide activity and may also help lower inflammation and limit the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, which plays a role in plaque buildup.”
Black tea’s fermentation, Dr. Davis notes, creates its own set of polyphenols including theaflavins, “which may help explain why it performed well here,” he adds.
The study highlights the reality that little habits add up to make a big difference. “There may also be a behavioral piece: A daily cup of tea often replaces a soda or sugary drink and can be a calming ritual,” notes Arash Bereliani, M.D., board-certified cardiologist and medical director of the Beverly Hills Institute for Cardiology and Preventive Medicine.
Although these findings found black tea to perform slightly better in terms of vascular disease, Michelle Routhenstein, M.S., R.D., preventive cardiology dietitian at EntirelyNourished.com stresses that both black and green tea are antioxidant-rich, and there’s no “right” answer for which kind you should drink. Also, just because the lowest estimated risk was observed among people who drank six to eight cups daily does not mean that everyone needs to drink that amount to benefit from it—or that there wasn’t a benefit to drinking less, she adds.
The bottom line
While the study presents some promising findings, it wasn’t set up in such a way as to show that drinking tea causes a reduction in vascular disease. It was an observational study, meaning the people were followed up to see how many people did and didn’t develop the condition, so it can’t show cause and effect.
As for the temperature component, participants merely self-reported the warmth of their tea—it wasn’t measured with a thermometer. The fact that those who called theirs “burning hot” experienced a higher disease risk is an association that warrants more investigation. However, researchers did note that the temperature-related findings are, at the very least, consistent with existing concerns that very hot beverages may increase disease risk, namely that of cancer.
The biggest takeaway? Regular tea-drinking can be a positive behavior, but it’s not the only thing you should be thinking about if you want to live your best and healthiest life. “Tea can be a helpful addition to a heart-healthy lifestyle, but it is just one piece of the puzzle,” explains Routhenstein. “The biggest priorities remain following a heart-healthy diet that meets your nutrient needs and supports healthy cholesterol and blood sugar levels, getting regular physical activity, avoiding smoking, prioritizing adequate sleep, and managing blood pressure.”
It is also important to understand your individual cardiovascular risk and work with your healthcare team to identify areas that may need attention. “Prevention involves addressing the interconnected factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease, including inflammation, oxidative stress, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, and elevated levels of cholesterol-carrying particles that can promote plaque buildup,” Routhenstein adds. “Small, consistent changes across several areas can have a meaningful impact on long-term heart health.”
Dr. Davis agrees: “The bigger message is that heart health comes from habits that stack together, and this study showed exactly that.”

Turning the clocks back at the end of daylight saving time has been linked to trouble falling and staying asleep, while ongoing sleep loss can take a toll on health.
While some research has suggested that the fall time change could have some cardiovascular benefits, the abrupt loss of evening sunlight can suppress serotonin and melatonin production, which can lead to a depressed mood, according to Dr. John La Puma, a California physician and expert in nature-based medicine.
The body’s internal clock does not automatically follow the clock on the wall, La Puma noted.
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“When the clocks change, your body clock is still on the old time,” he told Fox News Digital, pointing out some common effects people may notice.
“So, for about a week, you wake up an hour early. You get hungry early. You feel sleepy early. It gets dark by five. Afternoon light goes away. You get months of short days. … You need coffee just to feel human. It’s not great.”
Making small adjustments to your routine after the time change could help ease the transition, the doctor said.
No. 1: Make small schedule shifts
With clocks turning back overnight Saturday, people can begin moving bedtime, meals and wake-up time later in small increments on Friday, according to La Puma.
“So, you move your day later in small steps,” he advised. “You move your bedtime and meals the same 15 minutes each time.”
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For someone who normally goes to bed at 10 p.m., that could mean 10:15 p.m. Friday and 10:30 p.m. Saturday, before the clocks change. Wake-up times and meals can shift by the same increments as schedules allow.
No. 2: Don’t spend the ‘extra hour’ on a late night
Since the time change falls on Halloween, Dr. Saema Tahir, a sleep medicine doctor in New York City, cautioned against staying up late and drinking, operating under the assumption that the extra hour covers it.
“Keep alcohol moderate, finish drinking a few hours before bed and avoid caffeine after early afternoon,” she advised.
“Alcohol makes you drowsy at first but breaks up sleep in the second half of the night. Caffeine stays in your system for hours. Together, they can leave you more tired on Sunday than you would be with no time change at all.”
No. 3: Get outside at the right time
La Puma also emphasized the importance of being intentional about outdoor exposure.
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“You want to get outside at the right minutes, at the time of day and in the right place if you can,” he advised, specifically recommending getting outside each afternoon later in the day.
“Late-day daylight is different than morning daylight. Late-day daylight tells your body the day is running long, and it shifts later,” he said.
Once you’ve adjusted to the time change, Tahir recommends getting outdoor light within an hour of waking every day through the winter.
“Light is the strongest signal the body clock gets,” she told Fox News Digital. “Evening light pushes it later, which is the direction you need to go for ‘fall back.’ Morning light keeps it stable over the darker months and supports mood and daytime alertness.”
No. 4: Create a wind-down routine
Choosing a relaxing activity that signals bedtime is approaching can help to promote a consistent sleep schedule.
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La Puma suggests choosing a relaxing bedtime ritual, such as working in a paper workbook, sipping chamomile tea, taking a bath or using aromatherapy, options he outlines in his book, “Indoor Epidemic.”
“Very specific things that tell your brain and body, ‘I’m winding down so I can go to sleep.'”
No. 5: Avoid caffeine and screens
Other tips include limiting caffeine after noon and stopping screen time at least an hour before bedtime.
La Puma warned that light from the screen can suppress melatonin, the hormone that helps signal it is time to sleep. Even using night mode may not fully prevent that effect.
No. 6: Keep a consistent schedule after the change
Once the clocks change, it’s important to maintain a regular wake-up time, including on weekends, La Puma said.
“Pick one wake-up time and keep it every day, weekdays and weekends.”
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La Puma cited an eight-year study of about 60,000 people that linked consistent sleep and wake times to a 19% lower risk of death.
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“So, sleep and wake times have important effects on heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular mortality,” he said.