This ‘90s Australian fitness guru once demanded millions of dollars. Then she disappeared.

Born in Australia before finding a home in America at the age of 10, Susan Powter became a force to be reckoned with in the fitness space.

In the early '90s, Powter made millions off the back of her fitness program Stop the Insanity! which included audio cassettes, recipes and weight loss tips.

This was a vastly different wellness landscape than today — in the '90s, the diet industry was big business.

At her peak, Powter was selling $50 million in products annually. She became a cultural icon for her thundering voice, signature hairstyle and chaotic energy. Susan was so well known that she was named on People's list of 'Most Intriguing People' in 1993.

Powter is the subject of a new documentary, which will examine how she came to dominate the fitness industry in the '90s.

"Susan was one of the world's first true influencers at the beginning of what we would now refer to as the social media era," said Jamie Lee Curtis, executive producer of the film Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter.

"She was brazen and brave, and woke us all up."

Watch the Stop The Insanity infomercial. Post continues after video.

Along with her diet program and best-selling books, Powter was known for her personal story: she was sold as a Texan homemaker (despite being born in Sydney), who was raising two kids when her husband left her.

As an act of revenge, she decided to get fit and share what she learned with the world.

Her catchphrase quickly became, "It's not food that makes you fat. It's fat that makes you fat."

For a woman raised in the '90s — a period known for its restrictive dieting messaging — she actually had a fairly measured approach to dieting.

"You've got to eat, and you've got to move, and you've got to breathe," she was heard saying on stage at a speaking event in 1993, as reported at the time by the New York Times. 

"Starvation does not work! Do not deprive yourself. The first symptom of deprivation is bingeing. You are not undisciplined. You are not a failure."

It was a no-nonsense ethos that resonated with women across the world, especially in middle America.

But despite her early success, Powter's fall from grace came hard and fast: she filed for personal bankruptcy in 1995.

A mix of bad business deals and lawsuits drained Powter of any savings she once had. By 2020, she was on a government assistance scheme Medicaid and paying her bills by becoming a food delivery driver.

Ahead of the documentary and an upcoming memoir, Susan Powter is ready to talk about where she went wrong.

"I've known desperation," Powter told PEOPLE in a rare interview. "Desperation is walking back from the welfare office. It's the shock of, 'From there, now I'm here? How in God's name?'"

Susan Powter was a fitness guru in the early '90s. Image: Getty.

Despite starting a hugely profitable business, she was sharing the profits with a business partner under a 50-50 split. She sued them and they countersued which continued to stack up the legal fees.

"There was nothing but lawsuits in the '90s," she admitted.

After a failed talk show, she walked away from the TV contract and relocated to Seattle with her third son, who she'd adopted.

"I was teaching classes in an elementary school basement, photographing underwater home births, driving my little Volkswagen Bug with my baby, just being a mother," she said. "I'm a very basic hippie kind of gal."

Despite restricting her spending, she claims that she lost all her money as it was being mishandled by someone else. "I never checked balances," she said. "I should have questioned. I fully acknowledge that. I made a mistake… I knew how much control I gave up. I didn't know what got paid where, but I had no property. There was no fund left for my children."

In 2018, she was living in an RV in a campground in Las Vegas with her only means of income coming from food delivery services like Uber Eats.

"It's so hard. It's horrifyingly shocking," she said. "If sadness could kill you, I'd be dead."

With her funds dried up, she hoped that she could make money back through another fitness book or tape, but by then, times had changed. "I didn't think there would never be another book or video. I've never not worked. I never thought I wouldn't be able to make a living," she admitted. "But try to get a job as a 60-year-old woman."

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Thankfully, she has since found a way to secure a constant income after a health scare encouraged Susan to apply for Social Security. "That $1500 check shocked the hell out of me. Whoever said money can't buy happiness lied. Liar. It wasn't happiness. It was bigger than happiness. I took the deepest breath," she said.

"And this is not just a 'you used to have millions and now you don't' story. This is a very real thing that many, many women go through."

But her years in poverty have left emotional scars. "Obsessively. I don't spend any money. I don't go anywhere. I don't eat out," she said. "These are the sweatpants I wear all the time. Seven dollars on Amazon."

More recently, she met filmmaker Zeberiah Newman who pitched the idea of the documentary about her life. "What's made a big difference for me is the response that Zeb has gotten," Powter said.

"In the industry, people are like, 'Oh my God. She still looks good. That's so great.' That has meant something to me. I don't walk around wondering if people are interested in what the sh*t I'm doing. But that has been very heart-warming."

But Susan's short burst of fame has continued to plague her all these years later. She once lost a job as a waitress after her boss discovered who she was. "She Googled me and said, 'What are you doing here?' She thought I was doing an exposé."

One day when she was delivering food in Vegas, someone asked her "Didn't you used to be Susan Powter?" she recalled, admitting she then went to her car and wept.

"I didn't recognise me anymore."

Feature image: Getty.