TRAGEDY FOR MARTHA

The crash of a private plane off the coast of New York’s Hamptons on June 2 hit painfully close to home for Martha Stewart. The plane belonged to prominent builder Ben Krupinski, who was on board along with his wife, Bonnie, grandson Will Maerov and pilot Jon Kenneth Dollard. Ben, 70, was known as the “Builder to the Stars” and was extremely close to the lifestyle tycoon, 76. (In 2013, his daughter, Laura, publicly accused the pair of having an affair, which Martha’s camp denied.) In 2005, when Martha was released from prison after serving five months for insider trading, it was Ben who picked her up — in a private plane. “Ben and Bonnie were my friends from the moment I met them in the early 1990s,” says Martha. “I am devastated by the news.”