The Origin Story Behind One Of Martha Stewart's Best-Selling Items Is Absolutely Wild

Martha Stewart stopped by "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on January 20 and revealed the true story behind one of her website's best-selling holiday items.

Prior to spilling the details on the decor, she spilled the tea about one of her famous romances — Stewart said an iconic movie caused her to dump Anthony Hopkins! The lifestyle guru told Ellen DeGeneres it was hard to separate Hopkins from his role as Hannibal Lecter in "Silence of the Lambs." During her visit to "The Ellen Show," Stewart said, "I have a big, scary house in Maine that's way by itself on a hundred acres in a forest, and I couldn't even imagine taking Anthony Hopkins there. I couldn't because all I could think of was him eating, you know...," she said. We feel you, Martha.

Stewart never disappoints, and the host continues to innovate through her TikTok videos and her various collaborations with Snoop Dogg, always keeping fans on their toes. But no one was expecting this revelation when she shared the story behind her nativity scene figurines!

It turns out that Martha Stewart made one of her most popular holiday gifts while incarcerated. During her January 20 visit on "The Ellen Show," Stewart revealed one of her best-selling holiday products on Martha.com was a replica of a nativity scene she made while serving time. (According to Town and Country, Stewart spent five months in prison at West Virginia's Alderson Federal Prison Camp in 2004 for a stock sale coverup.)

As Stewart recalled, "Well, there was a ceramics studio at this lovely place in West Virginia. I call it camp," she joked. "I spent my evenings ... creating this fantastic creche-all the nativity scene. Fourteen pieces, camels and donkeys, and Jesus, and Mary and Joseph, and the wise men." For the product she sells to customers, "I did a facsimile of it ... and that was the best, second-best selling item on our website this Christmas." Stewart had recently shown off the set of glazed figurines in a TikTok just before the holiday. The lifestyle guru explained she initially reached out to Alderson Federal Prison Camp to get the molds for the nativity set. Stewart said, "I called, I wanted the molds, cause I... like for history, you know, and they had thrown away all the molds. They had a whole warehouse of a beautiful mold." 

As for the original piece of art, it's been on display in Stewart's house every holiday season since 2005, she revealed on TikTok. Leave it to Martha Stewart to turn a prison craft into a masterpiece that retails for $150 per set.