For someone who prides herself on always being camera-ready, Martha Stewart spent much of the last year hiding a painful secret: a broken big toe she says came courtesy of Jalen Brunson.
The 84-year-old finally brought it up face-to-face during a recent appearance on Brunson’s Roommates Show podcast, where she told the New York Knicks star that a courtside collision during last spring’s playoffs left her injured for nearly a year.
The moment happened during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers at Madison Square Garden. Brunson chased a loose ball out of bounds and flew directly into Stewart, who was seated courtside in open-toe sandals.
“You jumped up really fast,” Stewart told him. “And I remember saying, ‘It’s okay.’ You had no idea that you had hurt me. I didn’t say you hurt me, but I said, ‘It’s okay.’ It wasn’t okay at all.”
Stewart said Brunson not only landed on her foot, but briefly wound up in her lap. Brunson admitted he had no memory of the incident and apologized on the podcast. By that point, however, Stewart had already spent months dealing with the aftermath.
After the game — which stretched into overtime — Stewart went directly to the Hospital for Special Surgery, where doctors confirmed the break. According to Stewart, the injury became enough of a recurring joke that medical staff began referring to it as the “Stewart-Brunson fracture.”
“It took one year to heal,” she said, adding that she still has the X-ray.
Stewart has spent the last several months publicly embracing the idea that she is very much still in the game — literally and romantically.
Still, she said the Knicks incident taught her one lesson. “It’s my fault for wearing open-toe shoes to a basketball game,” Stewart said. “It was stupid of me.”
