Martha Stewart's Daughter Alexis Writes Home Life Was Hell

Oct. 3, 2011— -- Alexis Stewart, the "salty" daughter of homemaking goddess Martha Stewart, in a new book, writes that her mother strived for television perfection but was not a perfect parent.

"If I didn't do something perfectly, I had to do it again," writes Stewart, 46. "I grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head."

"Martha does everything better. You can't win!" she writes in "Whateverland: Learning to Live Here," a comical guide for those who "hate how-to manuals," slated for bookstore shelves Oct. 18.

The sassy daughter lambasts her busy mother for everything from not having much food in the refrigerator to bringing home lederhosen from Switzerland: "You want me to be stoned to death at school?" her daughter writes.

Alexis Stewart also writes that despite her mother's public image, she was a humbug at holiday time, making Alexis wrap her own presents. And at Halloween, there was no trick or treating.

"Martha was not interested in being kid-friendly," her daughter writes. "She would hand me things right before Christmas and say, 'Now wrap these but don't look inside."

"Halloween was also a grim affair: There were no costumes," she writes. "There was no anything. We turned off all the lights and pretended we weren't home."

Both Martha and Alexis Stewart were not available to comment on the book, according to their respective publicists.

Martha Stewart, 70, has a reputation as being a "control freak" and making her employees cry, according to Forbes, which lists her net worth at $638 million. The media empire tied to her superhostess persona includes publishing, broadcasting and merchandising.

In 2004, Stewart was charged with four counts of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale, but never missed a beat of popularity on her various cooking and decorating shows.

She had a tempestuous relationship with her daughter, but they got closer during her mother's time in a Virginia federal prison, according to press reports.

In 2005, mother and daughter worked together on television's "Apprentice," and Alexis Stewart has advanced her own career through Martha Stewart Omnimedia.

Martha Stewart's culinary capability was apparently a television creation, according to her daughter.

"There was never anything to eat at my house," writes Alexis Stewart. "Other people had food. I had no food. ... There were ingredients but no prepared food of any kind."

Alexis "Lexie" Stewart is the only child of Martha and Andrew Stewart and was raised in New York City. She was the co-host of "Whatever With Alexis and Jennifer" on Sirius Satellite Radio with her book co-author Jennifer Koppelman Hutt, the daughter of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia executive Charles Koppelman.

Their topics ranged from pop culture to parodies of Martha Stewart's homemaking in a mock show called "Whatever, Martha." This year, the duo took their radio show to the Hallmark Channel. Some online critics have called Alexis Stewart a "gutter mouth" who "drops the F bomb" in the blog she wrote for the channel until last June.