Fitness Legend Susan Powter Opens Up About Time Of “Desperation” Trying To Make $80 Per Day After TV Fame Ended: “Scary As S***”

“Stop the insanity!” Wellness guru Susan Powter rose to fame in the ’90s after her “Stop the Insanity!” infomercials spawned a fitness empire that put her on the map. But Powter, who is now 66, revealed that she fell on hard times after her television career ended, forcing her to deliver food for services like GrubHub and UberEats just to make ends meet.

“I’ve known desperation,” she recently told People. “Desperation is walking back from the welfare office. It’s the shock of, ‘From there, now I’m here? How in God’s name?’”

With her infomercials and her Shopping with Susan special, Powter reportedly sold $50 million in products annually, according to People. She became a notable television personality with appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Arsenio Hall Show, and Conan O’Brien through the ’90s. She also made an appearance on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Saturday Night Live, playing herself. Powter later landed a short-lived talk show of her own from 1994-1995, but that ended in a string of bad lawsuits that forced her to declare bankruptcy in 1995.

Powter called her talk show “complete crap,” claiming, “They put me in pearls. They produced ‘me’ out of me. Those segments — I can’t even watch them now.”

The experience forced her to walk away from the industry. But Powter said she didn’t notice that her money was disappearing as the years went by, leaving her and her kids without much.

Her final television appearance came in 2011 when she guest judged on an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. “I didn’t think there would never be another book or video. I’ve never not worked. I never thought I wouldn’t be able to make a living,” she said. “But try to get a job as a 60-year-old woman.”

By 2018, Powter said life became “scary as shit.”

She began delivering for GrubHub and UberEats to make “at least $80 a day” for food and rent. “It’s so hard. It’s horrifyingly shocking,” she said. “If sadness could kill you, I’d be dead.”

Powter said her life took a turn about a year ago when she began receiving a monthly check after she applied for Social Security.

“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness lied. Liar. It wasn’t happiness. It was bigger than happiness. I took the deepest breath,” she said. “And this is not just a ‘you used to have millions and now you don’t’ story. This is a very real thing that many, many women go through.”

She noted that she now saves her money “obsessively.” Powter’s career will now be captured in an upcoming documentary executive produced by Jamie Lee Curtis. The renewed interest in her career also inspired her to turn her personal journals into a memoir,  And Then Em Died… Stop the Insanity! A Memoir.

Curtis called Powter “one of the world’s first true influencers,” per People.

“Like so many women’s stories, Susan’s power and her light was diminished, denigrated and dismissed,” she said. “Life on life’s terms can often be harsh, as is the case with Susan’s story, but watching her fight for her rights and start to build back her life is also as much about the American dream as her success was. I’m so proud to be a small part in the reemergence of this incredible woman.”

Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter is slated to premiere in 2025.