Martha Stewart announces the death of her cat Empress Tang: 'She lived well, worked hard'
Martha Stewart is mourning the loss of her nearly 15-year-old calico Persian cat, Empress Tang.
The 82-year-old lifestyle expert and media personality posted several images of Empress Tang April 8 on Instagram, writing, "Empress Tang, my dearest tri color Persian, passed away this morning of natural causes. She was an awesome cat she lived well, worked hard."
Stewart added that Empress Tang was in several advertisements for the PrettyLitter brand and appeared often in Martha Stewart Living magazine.
"We loved her so much!!!!!!!!!!!!" she wrote.
Empress Tang and her late sister, Princess Peony, were born on May 11, 2009, and moved into Stewart's house when they were 4 months old, according to a 2020 blog post about Stewart's pets on her official website.
The news of Empress Tang's death comes almost exactly two years after Stewart announced that Princess Peony had died after being mistakenly attacked by Stewart's four dogs.
“Burying the beautiful and unusual Princess Peony,” Stewart wrote alongside a photo on Instagram of three workers digging a grave. “The four dogs mistook her for an interloper and killed her defenseless little self. i will miss her very badly. RIP beauty.”
Stewart later posted a close-up image of Princess Peony on Instagram.
In March 2021, Stewart spoke to TODAY.com about what a comfort pets were to people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There are waiting lists for pets because people really did figure out that house pets are a great comfort, a great addition to the household,” she said.
Stewart described Empress Tang and Princess Peony at the time as "gorgeous" and "very special." She also commented on her third cat, a boy named Blackie who lived in her greenhouse.
"He is a hunter. The two lady cats are not really hunters," she explained. "Blackie actually kills varmints every single day. Somehow he manages to find something to kill, that killer.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
