She was the ultimate '90s fitness influencer. Now she's delivering Uber Eats — and rebuilding her life.
Susan Powter delivered Uber Eats just three days ago.
That alone isn’t shocking — many people work in food delivery. What’s surprising is remembering that Powter’s “Stop the Insanity!” infomercials were so wildly successful in the 1990s that her business generated $276 million in its first year.
“It was a crazy phenomenon,” the Australian-born, U.S.-bred personality, now 67, tells me in conversation for Yahoo's Unapologetically series. “It was a thing that had no chance in hell of happening, and then it broke every record. [Nobody] saw it coming.”
A young mom who created a high-octane exercise and nutrition regimen to shed weight after her divorce, Powter became an original fitness influencer, inspiring millions to eat healthy, organic food and get moving. Then it came undone. The blond, spiky-haired wellness enthusiast fell into financial ruin as the fortune she amassed was lost through years of mismanagement and legal disputes. By 2018, the two-time divorcée — who came out in 2004 — was living in a Las Vegas welfare hotel, having long disappeared from the public eye.
Powter’s rise, fall and current rebirth are at the heart of the new documentary Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter , executive produced by Jamie Lee Curtis, which is now streaming. While the money is gone, her signature enthusiasm remains — and so does her drive to make a comeback.
