--- title: Martha Stewart Explains Her “Thirst Trap" Pool Selfie description: The business mogul took a pool selfie that made waves on the Internet canonical: https://time.com/5872197/martha-stewart-thirst-trap-pool-selfie/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-07-29T14:41:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:01:30.979Z og:title: Martha Stewart Explains Her “Thirst Trap" Pool Selfie og:description: The business mogul took a pool selfie that made waves og:url: https://time.com/5872197/martha-stewart-thirst-trap-pool-selfie/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Martha Stewart Explains Her “Thirst Trap" Pool Selfie twitter:description: The business mogul took a pool selfie that made waves twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Martha Stewart Explains Her 'Thirst Trap' Swimming Pool Selfie by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 29, 2020 2:41 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 29, 2020 2:41 PM UTC [Martha Stewart](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1972656%5F1972707%5F1973521,00.html) took a “thirst trap” pool selfie — she just didn’t know it at the time. Stewart made waves with a sultry pool selfie she recently shared on her Instagram account. However, when she was asked by [_Entertainment Tonight_](https://www.etonline.com/martha-stewart-on-her-thirst-trap-and-plans-to-smoke-a-joint-with-chelsea-handler-exclusive-150321) if she posted the image as a so-called “thirst trap” — a photo shared on social media to elicit lusty thoughts and appreciative comments from viewers — [Stewart](https://time.com/4911278/martha-stewart-morning/) replied, “I don’t even know what that is.” Once the internet parlance was explained to her, though, [Stewart](https://time.com/4415265/martha-stewart-living-best-life/) changed her mind. “That’s definitely a thirst trap,” she said. [Stewart](https://time.com/4379009/martha-stewart-twitter-jonathan-cheban/) said she shared the photo because she “just thought \[she\] looked great coming out of the pool.” “My camera came on backwards, you know, selfie mode, and I looked so nice. The sun was on my face. I thought, _‘Oh, that looks pretty,’_ so I took the picture. It looked good,” the lifestyle guru explained. While the photo was ostensibly about Stewart cooling down in her pool (“natural concrete finish” and “extra deep for diving and with no protruding steps,” as she noted in her caption) the Internet was heated. Over 230,000 people liked the photo on Instagram and thousands of comments rolled in, plenty using the fire emoji to capture their feelings. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5872197/martha-stewart-thirst-trap-pool-selfie/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5872197/martha-stewart-thirst-trap-pool-selfie/"},"headline":"Martha Stewart Explains Her 'Thirst Trap' Swimming Pool Selfie","datePublished":"2020-07-29T14:41:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:30.979Z","description":"The business mogul took a pool selfie that made waves","url":"https://time.com/5872197/martha-stewart-thirst-trap-pool-selfie/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Brief"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5872197/martha-stewart-thirst-trap-pool-selfie/","name":"Martha Stewart Explains Her 'Thirst Trap' Swimming Pool Selfie"}}]}] ```