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Susan Powter has experienced a lot of change in her life after she rose to fame with her fitness infomercials. After her first husband, Nic Villarreal, left her for another woman in 1986, Powter went from 130 pounds to 260 pounds — and turned to fitness to get her through. In the early ‘90s, Powter rose to prominence with her “Stop the Insanity!” fitness infomercials and went on to create a massive wellness empire, authoring several books and creating her own talk show, The Susan Powter Show. However, after ending up embroiled in several lawsuits, Powter was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1995, which led her to escaping from the public eye and ultimately running out of money in 2018. “Try to get a job as a 60-year-old woman,” Powter told People in October 2024, noting that she had been delivering Grubhub and Uber Eats for the past six years to make a living. After two decades, Powter is shedding light on her disappearance and bankruptcy through her new documentary, Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter. The film, produced by Jamie Lee Curtis, will open in select theaters in November 2025. Keep scrolling to learn more about Powter: Susan Powter Has Been Married Twice and Is a Mom of 4 Powter married Villarreal in 1982, and the pair welcomed sons Kiel and Damien before they ended up divorcing in 1988 following his affair with another woman. After her ex-husband’s affair, Powter turned to food to cope — which ultimately led her to join the fitness industry. “I was in a fat coma. I was literally dying,” she told the Chicago Tribune in a 1993 interview. “I decided to make a change.” Following her split from Villarreal, Powter tied the knot with musician Lincoln Apeland in 1989. The duo split in 1995. Nearly a decade later, Powter came out as lesbian in 2004 and adopted a third son, Gabriel. Susan Powter Rose to Fame Through Her Fitness Infomercials In 1990, Powter partnered with Dallas publicity representative Rusty Robertson to create her “Stop the Insanity!” infomercials, which included her health and wellness kit with exercise videos and recipes. “I just got up and spoke to women,” she told People in October 2024. “That’s what I did in the infomercial. It was unrehearsed, unscripted. And those women responded.” Susan Powter Had Her Own Talk Show and Wrote Several Books After the popularity of her infomercials, Powter started her own fitness studio and authored several books including 1993’s Stop the Insanity! and 1995’s Food. Despite all of her fame, Powter later admitted that she wasn’t running her own company because it was a “50/50 deal.” “They started to produce the ‘me’ out of me,” she explained to People in October 2024. “And that happened when the money got to here. Then it was like, ‘Oh, Suze, don’t say that. No, no. It’s a little too much. Oh, you’re shocking. Shocking.’ But that’s the same shock that got me there.” In 1994, the fitness instructor began filming her own TV talk show called The Susan Powter Show — except the control got to be too much for her. “I worked very hard on that show. Shooting three shows a day,” she told the outlet. “I did it with everything I had. But it was mortifying. They put me in pearls. Look at me — do I look like the pearl type? And I didn’t have any say. All those segments, I can’t even watch them now.” Susan Powter Declared Bankruptcy After getting herself out of The Susan Powter Show contract and fighting several lawsuits to renegotiate her business contracts, Powter was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1995. “There was nothing but lawsuits in the ‘90s,” she told People in an October 2024 interview. “Yes, there was money, but I never had $300 million in the bank account. I never made the money that I generated.” Powter ended up leaving Hollywood with her three children to move to Seattle where she rented a cabin and taught cooking and fitness classes. Susan Powter Lost All of Her Money Powter was living happily in Seattle before running out of all the money she made in 2018 and was unable to get a job. She ended up relocating to Las Vegas to live in a complex where she began delivering for GrubHub and Uber Eats. “It’s so hard. It’s horrifyingly shocking. If sadness could kill you, I’d be dead,” Powter told People in October 2024, noting that after she was approached by Curtis and filmmaker Zeberiah Newman about doing a documentary, it inspired her to share her story through her 2024 memoir, And Then Em Died…: Stop the Insanity!. “The money has been gone for 25 years. I’m not looking for a big fancy-schmancy life.” Powter shared that she just wants to “talk to the world” and “write books.” “I want insurance, I want a credit card, I want to pay my bills,” she shared with the outlet. “I want a dentist. But if it does happen, it’s going to be well-managed. It’s going to go to my kids and to me. I want to give my children back what should have been theirs.”
