“Stop the Insanity!” Wellness guru Susan Powter rose to fame in the 90s with “Stop the Insanity!” The infomercial created a fitness empire and shot her to fame. But Powter, now 66, said she fell on hard times after her TV career ended and was forced to use services like GrubHub and UberEats to deliver food to make ends meet.
“I know despair,” she recently told People. “I walked home from the welfare office in despair. I was shocked and thought, “After that, am I still here?” How about in the name of God? ”
According to People magazine, Powter sold $50 million worth of merchandise a year through infomercials and Shopping with Susan specials. She became a notable television personality throughout the ’90s, appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Arsenio Hall Show, and Conan O’Brien. She also appeared as herself on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Saturday Night Live. Powter then briefly hosted his own talk show from 1994 to 1995, but it ended in a series of bad lawsuits and he was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1995.
Powter called her talk show “total crap,” adding, “They put pearls on me. They made ‘me’ out of me.” You can’t even watch those segments now. ”
This experience forced her to leave the industry. But Powter said she didn’t realize that as the years went by, her money dwindled, leaving more for herself and her children.
Her last television appearance was in 2011 when she was a guest judge on an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. “I never thought I wouldn’t have any more books or videos. I never didn’t work. I never thought I wouldn’t be able to make a living,” she said. “But please find a job as a 60-year-old woman.”
Photo: Margaret Norton/NBCU Photobank/NBCUniversal
By 2018, Powter said life had become “scary as hell.”
She started delivering for GrubHub and UberEats to earn “at least $80 a day” for food and rent. “It’s very difficult. It’s scary and shocking,” she said. “If grief could kill you, I would be dead.”
Powter said her life has changed for the better since she applied for Social Security about a year ago and started receiving monthly checks.
“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness was a lie. A liar. It wasn’t happiness. It was more than happiness. I took a deep breath,” she said. “And this isn’t just a case of ‘I used to have millions and now I don’t have them anymore.’ This is a real thing that so many women experience.”
She said she now saves money “compulsively.” Powter’s career will be captured in an upcoming documentary executive produced by Jamie Lee Curtis. Her renewed interest in her career also inspired her to turn her personal diary into a memoir. And then Em died…Stop the Madness! Memoir.
According to People magazine, Curtis called Powter “one of the world’s first true influencers.”
“Like so many women’s stories, Susan’s power and light were diminished, vilified and ignored,” she said. “As in Susan’s story, life on the line is often tough, but watching her fight for her rights and begin to rebuild her life is as much about the American dream as it is about her success. I’m very proud to be able to play a small part in the rebirth of this amazing woman.”
Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter is scheduled to premiere in 2025.
