What Ruth Madoff, Wife Of Ponzi Scheme Bernie Madoff Life Looks Like Now?
In 2017, the HBO movie The Wizard of Lies tried to answer some questions regarding the family’s knowledge of the infamous Ponzi scheme. Michelle Pfeiffer played Ruth in the film, which attempts to explain just how his family might not have known what was going on. For Pfeiffer’s part, she says that she believes Ruth and their sons truly didn’t know what was going on until Bernie confessed. “In all the research I did, there wasn’t one person who knew the facts who thought Ruth was aware of anything,” she told Town and Country. Before filming started, Pfeiffer met with Ruth at her Old Greenwich home. According to what the film’s director, Barry Levinson said about the meeting, it wasn’t precisely a spirit of cooperation that saw her meeting with the actress who was going to be portraying her. Michelle simply spent a little time talking to Ruth. I don’t think Michelle talked much about the script. It was simply to get to know her.” “I knew Ruth wasn’t happy about this film being made,” Pfeiffer said. “Why would she be? But the best I could do is represent her in an honest way. My hope is that people will come away from this film thinking of her as a human being.”
When Bernie Madoff’s investment firm turned out to be a giant Ponzi scheme, the world watched in shock not only as his family’s lavish lifestyle crumbled, but as thousands of clients he had swindled were left with virtually nothing. At the center of it all were his sons, who turned their father over to law enforcement in 2008, and his wife, Ruth Madoff, who maintained that she didn’t know that there was anything illegal going on. In the years that passed, Ruth practically disappeared from the spotlight altogether. Here’s what happened to her. In June 2009, just days before Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, Ruth struck a deal with U.S. prosecutors, forfeiting her right to $80 million in various assets in return for $2.5 million. As part of a court order, Ruth was ordered to report her monthly expenses, as well as anytime she spent over $100 on herself. In 2011, People magazine reported that friends of Ruth had been lending her a home to stay in Boca Raton, Florida, where she had been living a much different life than her time in New York. “She lives very frugally. She spends virtually nothing,” a source told the magazine. People also reported that Ruth was now going by her maiden name, Alpern, driving a 14-year-old car and had dyed her hair red. Ruth and Bernie’s son, Mark, committed suicide on December 11, 2010, exactly two years after his father’s arrest. Mark’s suicide left Ruth devastated and filled with regret, as she refused to listen to Mark’s pleas to cut off contact with Bernie. “I just wish, until my dying day, that I had done what he wanted.” Ruth also lost her son Andrew, to mantle-cell lymphoma, in 2014. Ruth now lives in Old Greenwich, Connecticut to be closer to her three grandchildren, and settled into a gated community called The Gables. It’s definitely not cheap, either, with one-bedroom condos listed for $3,100 a month. Friends and acquaintances say that she keeps to herself, and that she still keeps in contact with her husband even though her visits to him stopped as “she had to make a choice between her grandchildren and him”, quoted Madoff’s lawyer.
Has Ruth Madoff Adjusted To Her Downsized Life?
Susan Z’s Conclusion:
No but she realizes she has no choice as her personal finances are under constant scrutiny. I believe that she still enjoys some luxury perks provided by old friends who still live her old lavish life style. She has a tremendous amount of guilt over what happened to her sons but definitely feels she got a raw deal.
The Moon:
This card is seeds of new growth and creative potential. Whatever karma Ruth had to burn off in this lifetime is in full bloom now. I feel this about her spiritual growth and also balancing scales of possible “Let them eat cake” attitude from many past lives.
The Hierophant: Inverted (Upside Down)
This card is teacher and healer. Since the card is pulled inverted, I believe this was a life lesson she wrote for herself and also to show others what greed looks like but she just might be asking the question: “what the hell was I thinking”!
The Hanged Man:
This card is victim energy and surrendering past hurts and resentments. I feel this is what Ruth feels every day and will for the rest of her life as I have to agree with Michelle Pfeiffer conclusion that she was not aware of what her husband was doing and was just enjoying the moneyed life he gave her. Let us hope she can at some point move beyond it.
Susan Z Rich is an emotional addiction counselor, spiritual intuitive and holistic therapist. She counsels others to see life in a more positive way and teaches personal accountability for life choices. She is also the author of several children’s books and Soul Windows…Secrets From The Divine.