Martha Stewart is let out of prison

She's several hundred million pounds richer, has just been nominated for three top television awards and has even managed to lose nearly two stone in weight.

America's "domestic goddess" Martha Stewart was freed from jail today after managing to make her five months in a federal prison for perjury seem like a break at a health spa.

Accompanied by her daughter Alexis, Stewart was driven out of West Virginia's Alderson Prison to board a private jet at a local airport. The plane then flew the released prisoner to her 150-acre property in Bedford, New York.

Stewart, who was convicted last March over insider dealing of shares in ImClone Systems, will spend the next five months under house arrest with a monitoring bracelet strapped to her ankle.

However, thanks to prison food reportedly supplemented by dandelion leaf salads and tasks that including cleaning floors and raking up leaves at the low-security prison, the 63-year-old tycoon has emerged a changed woman - at least around the hips and thighs.

She is also estimated to be nearly £400 million richer, thanks to a dramatic improvement in the fortunes of her broadcasting, magazine and shopping empire. In the final week of her sentence, Stewart also heard that her popular television show - taken off the air during her incarceration - has been nominated for a hat-trick of daytime TV Emmy awards.

As a convicted felon she cannot yet take control of her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, but can pay herself a ?500,000 salary.

Stories about her life behind bars include claims that she taught yoga to fellow inmates and nar rowly lost a Christmas cell-decorating contest.

Other prisoners are also said to have dubbed her the "Contraband Queen" because of skills that included stealing hard-boiled eggs from the dining hall to make an egg salad in her cell.

Prison has also brought her a £2.5 million publishing deal for a book about her experience and a new TV reality series with Donald Trump based on The Apprentice, for which she will be paid about £50,000 an episode.