Martha Stewart says Kmart once paid her $65 million a year in royalties—enough to bankroll her entire empire

Long before “influencer” was a job title, Martha Stewart was getting paid like one.

Kmart was signing the checks.

Stewart, 85, said on MasterClass’s Other People’s Business podcast that her licensing partnership with the discount chain once brought in as much as $65 million a year in royalties.

“Kmart was my first big money, and it was a lot of money,” she said.

“I was clearing $65 million a year in royalties.” That income, she said, was “funding the whole development of my magazine, the whole business.” It also helped set up the moment in 1999 when Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public and made her America’s first female self-made billionaire .

A discount-store deal that sold billions Kmart first hired Stewart in 1987 as a lifestyle consultant and spokesperson for its home division.

That arrangement fizzled in the early 1990s.

Stewart complained about the chain’s merchandising and quality control, and Kmart was drifting toward financial trouble.

After Floyd Hall became CEO in 1995 and set out to turn the retailer around, Kmart came back to her.

In 1997, the company launched Martha Stewart Everyday, a line of sheets, towels, shower curtains, and other bed-and-bath goods sold only at Kmart.

It later spread well beyond the linen aisle.

“They wanted me to be an influencer,” Stewart said.

“They didn’t know that word, but I knew that I could really influence a huge [audience].” Fortune has called her the original influencer .

The terms were generous.