'90s Fitness Icon Susan Powter Reveals How Jamie Lee Curtis Helped Save Her: 'I Lost Hope, But I’m Filled With it Now' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Susan Powter in 1993 (left) and Powter with Jamie Lee Curtis in July 2024.Photo:Courtesy Susan Powter (2)

Courtesy Susan Powter (2)

Powter, 66, a fitness icon in the ’90s who made millions with three best-selling books and her wildly successfulStop the Insanity!infomercial, lost her fortune after putting it in the hands of financial advisors, her manager and her business partners, and eventually disappeared from public life.

Susan Powter in her 1993 ‘Stop the Insanity’ infomercial.

For the past six years, she’s been living in Las Vegas, struggling to survive on a meager food delivery salary before she started receiving a Social Security check, which became her lifeline.

Newman texted his friendJamie Lee Curtisabout connecting with Powter, and immediately the actress was interested — and wanted to help. “She called me two minutes later, and the next day she said, ‘Go back to Vegas and start filming immediately,'” Newman says. Curtis became an executive producer on the project, an upcoming documentary calledStop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter.

Susan Powter with Jamie Lee Curtis in July 2024.Courtesy Susan Powter

Courtesy Susan Powter

Curtis calls Powter an “incredible woman”: “As one of the world’s first true influencers at the beginning of what we would now refer to as the social media era, Susan Powter was brazen and brave, and woke us all up,” the actress says. “Like so many women’s stories, Susan’s power and her light was diminished, denigrated and dismissed.”

A few months ago, Powter met Curtis in person and had a message for her. “I was in tears,” Powter says. “And I said ‘Thank you. Thank you for believing in me. I had lost faith. I had lost complete and absolute hope.'”

Powter, who’s just released a new bookAnd Then Em Died… Stop the Insanity! A Memoir, says the interest from Curtis and from the documentary in the works has given her renewed strength. “The response Zeb has gotten, in Hollywood and in the industry, people are like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so excited. She still looks good. That’s so great.’ That has meant something to me, a lot to me.”

Susan Powter photographed for PEOPLE in July 2024.Chloe Aftel

Chloe Aftel

Powter, who plans do an RV tour of the country, speaking to people and selling her self-published book, says she’s eager to connect with her fans again and hopes they can find inspiration from her story.

“Those women will hear my voice and they’ll be like, ‘Well, goddamn, she hasn’t changed one bit.'” she says. “What I feel now is the possibility of possibilities. There were days and days, months and months and years of not feeling that. I lost hope but I’m filled with it now. I have never been more excited.”

source: people.com