Martha Stewart has scrubbed a Halloween costume photo from Instagram after it drew fierce criticism for appearing to mock homelessness and hunger.
The 85-year-old lifestyle mogul shared the image as part of a carousel post promoting her QVC candle line, according to reports. The photo showed Stewart in distressed clothing with dirt smeared across her face, clutching a clipboard that read “I AM HUNGRY HELP ME!” The post vanished from her Instagram account shortly after publication, though screenshots quickly spread across social media platforms.
Critics seized on both the costume itself and the commercial context surrounding it. The carousel reportedly framed the candles as Halloween-appropriate products, creating a jarring juxtaposition between a depiction of hunger and a pitch for lifestyle goods. Some social media users labeled the costume “out of touch,” “offensive” and “gross.” The backlash was amplified by Stewart’s considerable wealth, with the outlet estimating her net worth at $400 million.
The criticism migrated to Reddit, where users shared and discussed screenshots after the original post disappeared from Instagram. Notably, the image reportedly remained visible on Stewart’s Facebook page even after its removal from Instagram.
Stewart has built a decades-long reputation for elaborate Halloween costumes, regularly using the holiday to showcase detailed, themed outfits that generate media attention. Her previous Halloween looks have consistently drawn public interest, though typically for their creativity and craftsmanship rather than controversy. This year, the subject matter and promotional setting of her costume shifted the conversation toward questions of taste and sensitivity.
The entrepreneur established her public profile through cooking, entertaining and home decor, expanding into magazines, cookbooks and television programs. More recently, she has maintained visibility through her friendship with rapper Snoop Dogg, a Netflix documentary about her life and her active social media presence. That renewed pop-culture relevance had positioned her for a different kind of Halloween moment before the deleted post redirected attention toward the backlash.
The incident marks a notable departure from Stewart’s typical holiday social media strategy, which has historically emphasized aspirational and meticulously crafted content. The choice to portray someone experiencing hunger as a Halloween character, particularly within a product promotion, struck many observers as a misalignment with the polished brand identity she has cultivated across multiple decades and platforms.
Stewart has not publicly addressed the criticism or explained her decision to remove the image from Instagram. The deletion itself did not halt the image’s circulation, as users had preserved screenshots that continued to spread across platforms after the original post came down.