LATEST: Property tycoon Donald Trump made sure his pal and new business partner Martha Stewart's first day of freedom after a five month prison spell was extra special by sending her 18 red roses.

Trump also arranged for the lifestyle queen to fly home from the West Virginia prison, where she served a stocks fraud sentence, on one of his private jets yesterday (04MAR05).

He says, "She's really happy to be out. She's really thrilled to be with her family. Now she needs some time to breathe. What she suffered is unbelievable and so unfair."

Trump and Stewart will team up later this year (05) for a new TV show - a spin-off of the tycoon's hit reality contest The Apprentice.

Meanwhile, Stewart thrilled journalists who gathered outside her upstate New York estate yesterday when she sent an aide out with cocoa.

05/03/2005 01:42