Martha Stewart Opens Up To Katie Couric About Her 'Very Awful' Time In Prison

Homemaker icon Martha Stewart revealed emotional details about her 2004 stay in West Virginia's Alderson Federal Prison Camp to Katie Couric on Couric's self-titled podcast. It has been 13 years since her incarceration, and the TV host still bears the emotional scars of an event that she called "a very very awful thing."

Sentenced to five months for lying about the sale of a stock, Stewart feels that no one, save for murderers and a few others, should have to endure even a minimum security prison.

"There are lots and lots of disturbing things that go on in an incarceration like that," she told Couric. "In minimum security, you still couldn't walk out the gate or cross the river. There's still guards, and it's still nasty."

The kitchen entrepreneur avidly does not want to be remembered for her time in prison, because she feels it does not define her.

"One thing I do not ever want is to be identified or I don't want that to be the major thing of my life," she said. "It's just not fair. It's not a good experience, and it doesn't make you stronger. I was a strong person to start with, and thank heavens I was, and I can still hold my head up high and know that I'm fine."

And why would she let it define her? After years of success, the cookbook author is currently releasing her 89th cookbook, Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker, and is enjoying tremendous popularity with her new show Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party. Take these 10 essential life tips from Martha Stewart and celebrate her kitchen and food legacy.