Kevin Bacon Explains How It Felt To Lose 'Most Of Our Money' To Bernie Madoff
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Hollywood couple Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick might have lost millions after investing their money with disgraced Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, but Bacon says he has tried not to let the loss define him.
“We had most of our money in Madoff,” the actor said on Monday’s episode of “Smartless,” a podcast hosted by Will Arnett,Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes. “There’s obvious life lessons there ― if something is too good to be true, it’s too good to be true.”
Madoff, who died last year at 82, was responsible for what is said to be a $65 billionPonzi scheme, the largest in history.
After Madoff burned thousands of investors and outfoxed regulators, his house of cards fell in 2008 and he was sentenced to a 150-year prison term.
Bacon has never revealed just how much he lost to Madoff’s money machinations, but it’s estimated to be in the millions.
The actor said the news was hard to take but that he tried to keep things in perspective.
“Certainly, you get angry and stuff, but I have to say, there were a lot of people who were much worse off than we were – old people, people whose retirement funds were completely decimated,” Bacon said. “So there’s always going to be somebody that’s going to have it a lot worse than you.”
Bacon said he and Sedgwick took that philosophy to heart and did what they needed to do.
“When something like that happens, you look at each other and you go, ‘Well, that sucks, and let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.’ We’ve made it this far, our kids are healthy, we’re healthy, you know? Let’s look at what we have that’s good. We can still both work.”
Bacon said on the podcast that he and his wife have managed to recover “a portion” of the funds they lost and also mentioned a lawsuit that could continue to help victims recoup their losses.
Meanwhile, the Madoff Victim Fund website says the fund has now returned more than $4 billion to over 40,000 victims.
Still, Bacon admitted that he prefers to focus on his career rather than his finances.
“I think people will be not happy to hear me whining about money,” he said.
You can listen to the complete podcast below.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
