It was hard to believe Ruth Madoff on 60 Minutes, on a couple of levels. The first was why 60 Minutes had her on its show. Even as a craven ratings ploy, it was pretty embarrassing for the news magazine to devote time to the wife of convicted financial advisor Bernie Madoff. Morley Safer’s kid-gloves scoffing at Ruth’s gullability was supposed to pass as journalistic interrogation, but what did the segment really provide, other than an opportunity for Ruth to natter on about her ignorance of her husband’s massive Ponzi scheming?
The second level of disbelief lay in Ruth’s view of the universe. She actually believed that viewers were going to feel some sympathy for her over the 2010 suicide of her son Mark — that, as she put it, there is no greater pain than the death of one’s child? I had to rewind that part: Ruth Madoff never expressed sympathy for Mark, or for his family, but rather chose to emphasize her own pain?
Regarding the hyped-in-advance tale that Ruth and Bernie attempted suicide: I didn’t believe that, either. As Mary McCarthy once famously said of Lillian Hellman, “Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’” 60 Minutes gave Ruth Madoff a big plug for her new book, which I won’t plug by writing its title.
What’d you think of the Ruth Madoff/60 Minutes story?
Twitter: @kentucker
Ruth honey, next time, try a revolver.
revolver = good line. as to ruth’s utter narcissism that tucker is pointing out in surprise. i agree that she and madoff the husband are extremely and obviously narcissistic; i don’t think tucker should be so surprised by that. but yes, i am revolted that 60 minutes had her on.
Boo hoo Ruthie.
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The son that killed himself was hawt. The living son has no top lip.
I know, none.
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Any money made under Maddoff I thought had to be given back, so he couldn’t be “sitting” on any money, I don’t think.
Disgusting, on the part of CBS and anyone named Madoff. Who cares what these horrible people have to say?… That’s what I thought.
It’s ALL about Ruth. Mark should have known that.
Interesting take, and you made some good points, Ken. I felt bad for Mark while watching the interview, but not really for Ruth.
The guy is more than happy to sit on the $60 million his father gave him. Daddy gave him everything in life and he is acting like he is entitled to the stolen money. I don’t feel sorry for him. I hope the lawsuit against him is successful.
I mixed up the brothers. I too felt sorry for Mark.
Didn’t he commit suicide?
Anna, Mark is dead. He committed suicide. Didn’t you read the article?
Actually, the son had a totally different company that had nothing to do with his father’s. Any money made under Maddoff I thought had to be given back, so he couldn’t be “sitting” on any money, I don’t think.
And did you catch toward the end of the interviews that neither mom nor son are going to get any monies from sales of the book? HOWEVER, his “fiancee” will get the money. Was I the only one who thought she seemed more like a wife than a girlfriend during the interview and thought, “They’ll never marry, it would cause her too much legal trouble.” Knowing now that she gets all the money from book sales, it’s untouchable as long as she doesn’t marry him.
Exactly. I thought the same thing. It seemed like they had been together for a long time too, and that’s clearly why they haven’t married. Definitely not cool on the profit from the book. They should have put the profits into a fund for the victims.
Such a narcissists like her husband. They were too selfish to kill themselves or even try.
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It seemed like they had been together for a long time too, and that’s clearly why they haven’t married. Definitely not cool on the profit from the book.
They’re really missing the good times in the Hamptons. I’m sure this is the first step in trying to get back in the good graces of former neighbors. Pathetic thing is, they probably will.
To quote Bill Maher:
“Up the dose, Ruth!”
You see they didn’t rip off the mafia.Just rich idiots, fool me once shame on you and fool me twice shame on me.
“There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it little behooves any of us
To talk about the rest of us.”
If you weren’t a direct victim of Madoff, you might muster a little compassion for the members of this family that lies in ruins. The entire situation is a tragedy on many levels..
The son’s suicide is a tragedy. Other than that there is little epic, tragic or poetic about what one man did to so many people including his own children. As for the Mrs…she’s standing by
The victims are not as innocent as they have been made out to be. Many were beneficiaries of the scheme for years and many wanted to be part of something that was “exclusive” never caring how they made money never asking questions as long as they did. Greedy pigs deserve to lose everything. Also these losses are usually being measured against what they were told they had which is why 50billion is so different from what was actually lost.
And many more were average people who lost their entire retirement funds because they saw an opportunity to increase their retirement income by investing in the Madoff plan.
Lots of average people invested in Madoff because he had a great reputation. They wanted to do the right thing and invest wisely for their retirement. Isn’t that what investments are for? How is that being “greedy pigs”? Now those people will be working well past retirement age because they can’t afford to retire. Please remember that these people are the VICTIMS, and that the greedy pig was Bernie Madoff.
Some of those average folks were tied into Madoff because their employers had their retirement plans invested there. They were very regular people who would never have been able to invest with Madoff directly because they weren’t upscale enough.
I would feel more compassion for this family if they a) weren’t fighting to hold on to the stolen money and b) showed a little compassion for Madoff’s victims, instead of merely feeling very, very sorry for themselves.
exactly. My previous comment that there was nothing tragic was directed toward the Madoff’s, not the victims.
The interview was enlightening, and I just kept an open mind about what they had to say. They at least got to say again that they weren’t involved in the scheme, and noting that his own sons turned him if is pretty fair proof of that; they could have just fled instead of handing their father over to the feds.
Ruth is so clueless that it’s pretty clear she wasn’t some master mind and simply a very naive woman. She was more worried about her husband than her children, and she lost her son to suicide; at what point do we at least try to hear their side; what if they weren’t involved and now are tainted by this forever? Do we really need not a pound but several hundred pounds of their flesh before we let these people live in peace?
And if you loathe the family then the interview was a chance to see how much they’ve suffered, been vilified, hounded, shamed and finally driven to suicide.
Completely agree. My Dad made the comment during the show to my mom (a skeptic regarding Ruths involvement) “Do you have any idea what i do at work all day?” The answer “No.”
Just because they were his family does not mean they knew what he was doing.
Perhaps if they want to live in peace, they wouldn’t be publishing a book and seeking publicity for it and themselves by appearing on a national television show.
dumb ass Family
I don’t think Ruth is very sharp. She sounds like she is clueless about finance. She and Bernie never talked about his business because she didn’t have the first idea of what to ask or discuss with him. I think all she cared about during the marriage was that there was always money to decorate her houses.
I agree with Ed’s comment at 12:41 am…I really disagree with anyone who jumps on someone’s comments that they only are thinking of themselves….I’m sure Ruth Madoff feels for her son’s family as well…you can’t jump all over someone for comments such as those – they don’t tell us anything. It’s a complicated situation. We really don’t have the right to judge.
Mark’s widow hates Ruth and Bernie so much that she has changed her last name, hoping to escape any link to them.That speaks volumes. Of course she blames both of them for his death! They will rot in their hell on earth for many years to come–too bad!
Mark’s widow hung on Mark and told him “she cannot take this anymore”! when he called to say he was so upset and needed her help. SHE is not blameless!!
It absolutely drives me nuts when journalists can’t even get basic facts right of a story. Ruth is getting no money from this book, which was stated….in the interview! If you are going to be self righteous, at least pretend you understand the facts.
Her son’s fiancee will get the money from the book. And you can bet that some of that cash will get to Ruth. Do you really think that she would be out promoting the book if something wasn’t in it for her?
Ruth was allowed to keep 2 millions by the Feds, and as she said in the interview that plenty. But I do agree that the money from the book should go to the victims. Ruth’s 2 million is enough for that entire family to live on.
While Ruth comes off a little “Joan Crawford-esque”, I don’t believe she is the monster Ken makes her out to be. I honestly don’t believe she had the first clue about finance and probably had no idea what her husband was up to — he was a legendary investor and there was no reason to believe he couldn’t have achieved 8% return on investment, on his own. She also DID lose a son. Yes, she comes off as an “ice queen”, but with one son dead, the husband she was married to for more than 50 years in jail for the rest of his life, countless lives ruined and her name forever tarnished — I do feel a little sympathy for this elderly woman, sorry.
NO WIRE HANGERS!
Ken is an anal cancer.
I tried to put myself in her situation. I know the basics of what my husbands does in his job but not the details. He very well could be doing something very dishonest/illegal and I would have no clue. I just trust that he isn’t. Maybe she isn’t a good judge of character? It is so hard to know.
My uncle hung himself and watching my grandparents deal with it tends to make me feel sympathy towards her. I think it was be terrible to lose a child in that manner.
Perhaps he TOLD her what he was up to.
Me too. Thanks for expressing your point so clearly
Please. Ruth said something on the Today show along the lines that the victims of Bernie’s fraud could get on with their lives but that she couldn’t because everybody is watching her. Boo hoo. The problem with Ruth is that she makes this all about what happened to her.
Are you kidding me?? You may not really know all that your husband does (even that seems crazy to me) but when someone is dealing with BILLIONS not even millions of dollars, things, lifestyles, etc are VERY different than most and it would be very hard to believe that she never questioned him deeper about his work, etc. Its a joke.
Really? I don’t find it at all unbelievable that a wife wouldn’t know what her husband does at the job. If you were married to a brain surgeon, would that mean you know how to do brain surgery?
As she is only 51, I don’t believe they were married for 50 years. I always assumed she was at least “wife #2″ if not more. There was quite an age difference. I think their marriage was a “lifestyle choice” more than a “love match”.
Gah! Pardon the misspellings and grammatical errors….I hit send by accident while I was still proofing my post.
She’s clearly older than 51.
Ruth is 70; she was born in 1941.
She looked numb, like she emotionally overloaded at some point and is just sputtering. More zombie than ice queen.
Good Job, CBS and 60 Minutes. Next: Casey Anthony! I’m sure she can say that there is no greater pain than the death of one’s toddler!
GREAT comment, vighorois!!!!