A 90s fitness guru who once had a multimillion-dollar empire became a delivery food driver to make ends meet.
Susan Powter, now 66, shot to fame as a nutritionist, personal trainer and motivational speaker three decades ago, earning $50 million a year, but nearly all her money vanished after her finances were severely mismanaged.
Now the fitness guru calls a low-income senior community in Las Vegas home and receives two free meals a week, Powter revealed to People.
After selling her iconic fitness program ‘Stop the Insanity! for $79.80 in the 90s, and making millions of dollars annually, Powter declared bankruptcy in 1995.
Though she still had some funds left, Powter said she was not in control, as financial advisors, business partners and her managers took over.
‘I’ve known desperation. Desperation is walking back from the welfare office. It’s the shock of, “From there, now I’m here? How in God’s name?”,’ she told the outlet.
Susan Powter, now 66, shot to fame as a nutritionist, personal trainer and motivational speaker three decades ago, but after losing almost all of her multimillion-dollar empire, she left the industry and depended on food delivery services to get by. (Pictured: Powter in 1995)
Now the fitness guru calls a low-income senior community home in Las Vegas , and has been for six years, receiving two free meals a week
She admitted that she ‘never checked balances’ on her account, and regrets not taking control of her hard earned money.
‘I should have questioned. I fully acknowledge that. I made a mistake.
‘I knew how much control I gave up. I didn’t know what got paid where, but I had no property. There was no funds left for my children,’ Powter said.
Just before losing almost all of her fortune, Powter was involved in a syndicated TV show that she called ‘complete crap.’
‘They put me in pearls. They produced “me” out of me. Those segments — I can’t even watch them now,’ she said.
She then made the decision to leave the fitness industry, leading her on a new career path while also focusing on being a mother.
‘I was teaching classes in an elementary school basement, photographing underwater home births, driving my little Volkswagen Bug with my baby, just being a mother.
After reading her novel ‘And Then Em Died… Stop the Insanity! A Memoir,’ her sons told their mother they had no idea what she was going through
Now her story will be told in a documentary, ‘Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter,’ created by filmmaker Zeberiah Newman. Jamie Lee Curtis, has jumped on the project as executive producer. (Pictured: Curtis and Powter pictured a couple months ago)
‘I’m a very basic hippie kind of gal,’ Powter said.
By 2018, Powter confessed that her life became ‘scary as sh**’ as she became an UberEats and GrubHub driver to make at least $80 a day so she could eat and pay rent.
‘It’s so hard. It’s horrifyingly shocking. If sadness could kill you, I’d be dead,’ she told People.
Last year she experienced a health scare and had to turn to collecting a Social Security check.
‘That $1500 check shocked the he** out of me,’ she shared.
‘Whoever said money can’t buy happiness lied. Liar. It wasn’t happiness. It was bigger than happiness. I took the deepest breath. 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.’
Now she saves her money ‘obsessively’ and spends frugally.
‘I don’t spend any money. I don’t go anywhere. I don’t eat out. These are the sweatpants I wear all the time. Seven dollars on Amazon,’ she told the outlet.
Although she’s struggled financially for so long, Powter initially decided to keep it a secret from her family, until she wrote a book about her journey this year.
After reading her novel ‘And Then Em Died… Stop the Insanity! A Memoir,’ her sons told their mother they had no idea what she was going through.
Just before losing almost all of her fortune, Powter was involved in a syndicated TV show that she called ‘complete crap.’ She then fled the industry and picked up jobs and took care of her children
Powter has since become empowered to tell her story on the big screen after being contacted by filmmaker Zeberiah Newman, who asked if he could create a documentary about her journey.
After years of feeling like society had forgotten about her, Powter said: ‘Never did I think that was possible,’ in regard to Newman’s request.
She told the outlet: ‘I’ve learned that women are invisible and invaluable after a certain age. It’s usually the f***able age.’
Soon after reaching out to Powter about the documentary offer, Newman decided to contact one of the biggest movie stars and his good friend, Jamie Lee Curtis.
‘She [Curtis] called me two minutes later, and the next day she said, “Go back to Vegas and start filming immediately”,’ Newman recalled.
The Freaky Friday star, 66, has since become the executive producer for the upcoming documentary, ‘Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter.’
‘As one of the world’s first true influencers at the beginning of what we would now refer to as the social media era, Susan Powter was brazen and brave, and woke us all up,’ Curtis told the outlet.
‘Like so many women’s stories, Susan’s power and her light was diminished, denigrated and dismissed.’
Powter met the actress just a few months ago, as they posed for a picture together.
‘I was in tears. And I said “Thank you. Thank you for believing in me. I had lost faith. I had lost complete and absolute hope”,’ Powter said.
After finding her voice again and taking a second shot at her career, Powter now plans to go on an RV tour of the country to sell her self-published book, and talk people going through similar issues (pictured: Powter with Will Smith on Episode 11 of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)
Newman said he chose to tell Powter’s story because he believes it can ignite other women who believe they’ve been forgotten as they age.
‘Anyone who was feeling frustrated with the system not working for them connected to her, felt seen by her,’ he explained.
Speaking of the growth he’s already seen in Powter, Newman added: ‘She’s blooming as a person and not as a celebrity or a thing in the world, as just a human being. It’s really incredible to watch her step into her power again.’
After finding her voice again and taking a second shot at her career, Powter now plans to go on an RV tour of the country to sell her self-published book, and talk to people going through similar issues.
‘Those women will hear my voice and they’ll be like, “Well, goddamn, she hasn’t changed one bit”,’ she said.
‘What I feel now is the possibility of possibilities. There were days and days, months and months and years of not feeling that.
‘I lost hope but I’m filled with it now. I have never been more excited.’
