Ruth Madoff, wife of disgraced financier Bernard L. Madoff, says the couple attempted suicide on Christmas Eve 2008, shortly after he confessed to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. “We were both so saddened by everything that had happened,” Ruth Madoff said in an interview with The New York Times. “It was unthinkable to me: hate mail, phone calls, lawyers.” Diana Henriques, reporter for The New York Times and author of the Madoff book, “The Wizard of Lies,” interviewed Ruth Madoff, and tells The Takeaway what they discussed. The information about the suicide attempt was first reported Wednesday evening by CBS News. An article based on Mrs. Madoff’s entire interview with The Times will appear on the paper’s website Sunday evening. The interview was granted in exchange for an agreement not to publish the full report until then.
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