Martha Stewart The queen of influencing

The queen of influencing ... talks living well, positive ageing, and her one style regret.

- ORLAN COSTLELLO

Martha Stewart is, arguably, the world's first influencer - long before Instagram. She's launched magazines, fronted TV shows, designed homewares, and shaped a vision of "living well" that homemakers across the world aspired to. But to those closest to her, she's simply Martha.

"I think some of my older friends are probably a little pissed off at me for being able to go the lengths I go to during a day," said Martha, from her home in Bedford, Maine.

Before she created her lifestyle empire, Martha was a model. In 1956, at 15, she was the face of Lifebuoy soap, an allover deodorant bar. Now, 70 years on, in a poetic, full-circle moment, she's fronting Rexona's new Whole Body Deodorant.

"It was a funny coincidence for me," she laughs. "The soap has evolved into a spray or a cream. And I thought this was funny - and also kind of unusual. If I did it at 15, I can do it now, at whatever my age is!"