‘Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street’: Ruth Madoff Only Cut Ties With Her Husband When Evidence of His Affair Was Uncovered
Bernie Madoff’s crimes, depicted in Netflix’s true crime documentary Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street, destroyed thousands of lives. While his sons and other relatives cut him off entirely after his 2008 arrest, Ruth Madoff stuck by her husband’s side.
That is, until Sheryl Weinstein, the former executive of Hadassah, publically claimed in her memoir titled Madoff’s Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me to having an affair with Bernie in the ’90s. This news finally gave Ruth the courage to walk away from Bernie for good. Here’s what we know:
Bernie Madoff’s $64.8 billion Ponzi scheme
Bernie’s Ponzi scheme relied on funds from unknowing investors. Their money would subsidize the withdrawals made by his other clients that extracted their investment gains. But, little did they know Bernie wasn’t investing a dime despite what their account statements indicated and was pocketing most of it himself.
Decades of fraudulent investments that all appeared to see a steady increase in return made Bernie quite popular. While many of his victims were individuals, banks, and nonprofits, several celebrities also invested with him.
When the market crashed in 2008, Bernie’s clients began withdrawing their money faster than he could pay them. It was only a matter of time before he got caught, and the stress led him to confess to his sons.
Mark and Andrew took their father home from the office where they all worked, and he revealed the details of his scam to his sons and wife. Understandably distraught, Bernie’s sons cut him off almost immediately. Ruth, however, stuck by her husband’s side.
Ruth met Bernie in high school
Ruth and Bernie met at Far Rockaway High School in Queens, New York, where they both attended. Ruth fell in love watching Bernie from afar while he worked as a lifeguard at Far Rockaway Beach. When Ruth turned 18 in 1959, the two got married, according to CBS News.
Early into their relationship, Bernie started his company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. Ruth worked for him, taking care of the company books. Even her father, Saul Alpern, helped Bernie get his business off the ground by using his expansive network of acquaintances to spread the word. Ultimately, hundreds of people lost their retirement funds because of Alpern’s insistence on investing with his son-in-law.
Ruth claimed to know nothing about the scheme
Since the beginning of this whole ordeal, Ruth has claimed her innocence. She swears she knew nothing of her husband’s crimes, and despite working for him as a bookkeeper, there’s no evidence of her involvement.
Ruth was never charged with a crime but lost most of her assets in the aftermath. However, prosecutors allowed her to keep $2.5 million, which is a far better deal than Bernie’s victims received. As Bernie sat behind bars awaiting his conviction, Ruth visited him weekly.
Even after he received a sentence of 150 years in prison, she continued to stand by her husband, traveling to a federal prison in North Carolina to see him. It wasn’t until Weinstein went public about her and Bernie’s alleged affair that Ruth started to see her husband for who he was.
Ruth confronted Bernie about his affair
Weinstein’s memoir delved into the details of her flirtation with Madoff, which she claimed evolved into a short affair in the ’90s. According to CBS News, a writer for the New York Times reported Ruth confronted Bernie about his infidelity while in prison. Diana Henriques stated:
“I think that it was a final straw situation. [Ruth] was stunned that he had lied to everybody else about what he was doing, but I don’t think she really understood [the Ponzi scheme] … It was almost like the infidelities gave her the spine to do what she knew she needed to do to save her family, which was cut Bernie off.”
Ruth drifted from her husband after that and began to create a life of her own. According to Henriques, she cut ties with her husband completely when their oldest son, Mark Madoff, died by suicide in 2010.
Ruth never divorced Bernie
Despite distancing herself from Bernie, she never filed for divorce. When asked in a 2011 60 Minutes interview why Ruth said:
“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter to me — he’s gonna die in prison. I certainly don’t want to find another man these days.”
As she predicted, Bernie died in prison of natural causes in 2021. Today Ruth lives a modest lifestyle in Connecticut. She lives in a senior development near her grandchildren.
