‘Stop the Madness!’ ’90s Fitness Guru Susan Powter Lost Multi-Million Dollar Empire and Survived by Giving Grubhub: ‘Sry as S—‘ (Exclusive)

• Mother of Susan Power Stop the Madness! The infomercial made him a fitness icon in the 1990s and earned his company $50 million annually.
• Bad business deals and lawsuits left Powter struggling financially. In 2020, he was on Medicaid and delivering food from Grubhub to support himself, he reveals to PEOPLE for the first time.
• Powter has written a memoir, is the subject of an upcoming documentary produced by Jamie Lee Curtis and is developing her own brand of health.

On a two-hour Zoom call from her Las Vegas kitchen last week, Susan Powter doesn’t sit still — she’s on the move.

Wearing black wings and a tank top that shows off her tattoos and a thin frame, she gestures with glee, her long, dark, polished fingernails flashing, her voice still it rises rapidly as he extols the virtues of exercise, breathing and… cucumber. “I do the best to cauliflower in the world,” he insists.

Thirty years after the 90s “diet deity” – like People he called her then – she burst onto American TV screens for the first time with her in-your-face platinum band. Stop the Madness! In a fitness infomercial, Powter, now 66, says: “My strength is still there!”

But despite that power, the former fitness mogul who once sold $50 million in products annually, reveals to PEOPLE — and in his new book. And Then He Died… Stop The Madness! A memorial – that for the past six years, he has been struggling.

“I’ve known despair,” admits Powter, who still lives in a community for low-income seniors where twice a week a local charity provides free meals. “Desperation returns from the welfare office. It is the warning of, ‘From there, now I am Here? How in God’s name?’”

In the early 1990s, Powter was a cultural icon, with his thunderous voice and incredible sound. He was cheated Saturday Night Live –and it stayed PeopleList of “Most Interesting People” in 1993.

Fan clubs shelled out $79.80 for him Stop the Madness! a program of recipes, exercise tips and motivational audio cassettes – and they’ve made Powter a three-time best-selling author. They were drawn to Powter’s personal story — the 260-lb. A Texas housewife with two children whose husband left her for another woman is taking revenge by getting fit – as well as taking down the food industry and its “fat makes you fat” message.

“Susan was one of the first real influencers in the world at the dawn of what we would call the social media era,” says Jamie Lee Curtis, executive producer. Stop the Madness: Finding Susan Poweran upcoming documentary on Powter’s life by filmmaker Zeberiah Newman is expected to be released next year. He was bold and brave, and he woke us all up.

But Powter, who came out as a lesbian in 2004, seemed to fade away as quickly as she rose to fame.

Even though his company was still making huge profits and Powter got his affiliate program, he says he realized that the 50-50 split he made with his business partners when he started it started as a passive business. He sued, they sued, and in 1995 he declared bankruptcy. “There was nothing but accusations in the 1990s,” he says.

Meanwhile, his show became “absolute nonsense,” he said bluntly. “They made me pearls. They produced ‘me’ from me. Those episodes – I can’t even watch them now. “

Frustrated with being controlled, she left her TV contract and moved to Seattle with her third son, whom she had adopted as a single mother when he was a baby. “I was teaching classes in the basement of a primary school, photographing babies born underwater, driving my Volkswagen Bug with my baby, still being a mother,” she says. .” “He’s the quintessential hippie guy.”

He was spending a little money and the funds were still flowing, but he was not keeping records, hoping that his money was being managed: “There was someone who was dealing with it. He says I never checked the measurements. I fully accept that. I made a mistake.”

Eventually, the money ran out. I knew how much control I had let go. I didn’t know where to get paid, but I had no property. There was no fund left for my children.

Even more frightening: he began to find that the doors that were once open to him were closed to him. He says: “I didn’t think there would ever be another book or video.” I haven’t worked yet. I never thought I would be able to make a living. – how old is the woman. ”

In fact, he says once lost a catering job after her boss discovered she was Susan Powter. He looked at Google and said, ‘What are you looking for?’ He thought I was doing an exposé.”

In 2018 life started to be “scary as shit.” He was forced to move from a campground where he lived in an RV to a notoriously dangerous building in Las Vegas for weekly rent. He first delivered to Grubhub and then Uber Eats, hoping he will collect at least $80 a day to pay for it. to eat and make rent. “It’s so hard. It’s so scary,” she says of trying to make ends meet. “If sorrow could kill you, I would be dead.”

She kept the depth of her struggles to her three grown sons: “My sons read my book and they were like, ‘Mom, we didn’t know.’

And he kept a low profile in his daily life in Vegas. But every now and then, someone would recognize her on the streets or say: “Weren’t you Susan Powter?” And he would go back to his car and cry. He says: “I didn’t recognize myself anymore.

Then about a year ago, he had a life scare that prompted him to apply for Social Security. And she started getting a monthly check, which has been a way of life, she says. He says: “That $1500 scared the hell out of me. Anyone who said money can’t buy happiness was a liar. A liar. It wasn’t happiness. It was too big to beyond joy. I breathed the most,” he says. “And this is not just a ‘you used to have millions and now you don’t’ story. This is a real thing that many women go through.”

Finally she was able to save again, so she started withdrawing the money she received from food delivery. “Extremely. I don’t spend money. I don’t go anywhere. I don’t eat out.,” he says, moving away from the Zoom camera to show a pair of black pants. “These are the pants I wear all the time. Seven dollars on Amazon.”

And last November, he met filmmaker Zeberiah Newman who proposed the script. “What made the biggest difference for me was the reaction Zeb got,” Powter says. “In the industry, people are like, ‘Oh my God. She still looks good. It’s so cool.’ That means something to me.

Curtis says he is one of those who want Power. “Like many women’s stories, Susan’s power and her light were diminished, belittled and dismissed,” says Curtis. “Life through life can often be difficult, like Susan’s story, but watching her fight for her rights and start to rebuild her life is as much about the American dream as her success was.” I’m so proud to be a small part of this amazing woman’s resume.”

Newman and Curtis’ interest, along with the modest stability that Social Security provided, prompted Powter to turn over the journal he kept as a souvenir—and start dreaming again. He says: “It has been healing and life-enhancing.

Powter knows that life can’t change overnight, so he continues to deliver Uber Eats orders. “I have a total of 4,800 trips,” he says. “I’m a hard worker and I take care of that food and I’m proud of the work I’ve done.”

And he’s not looking to build another fitness empire—he has modest and immediate goals. He says: “The money has been gone for 25 years. I don’t want a good professional life. “I want to talk to the world, I want to write books. I want insurance, I want a credit card, I want to pay my bills. I’m looking for a dentist. But if it happens, it will be well controlled. . It will go to my children and I want to give back to my children what should have been theirs.

He says he is ready for the next chapter. “And I depend on one thing: me.” His memoir is published, he says, “being away from shackles – my idea of ​​heaven.” He’s planning a podcast and exclusive content for subscribers once he launches his fitness brand on social media this week.

And he plans to use what little money he has saved to buy an RV and travel the country, meet fans and sell his book.

“I’m going to go out and connect with women,” she says. “I feel like there are opportunities. I feel grateful and hopeful. And being hopeful makes all the difference in the world.”

For more on Susan Powter, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, available Friday.