Wife and Son of Bernie Madoff Speak Out: UPDATED with Video

In a recent interview with Barbara Walters, the incarcerated Bernie Madoff said, “I feel safer here (in prison) than outside. I have people to talk to, no decisions to make. I know I will die in prison. I lived the last 20 years of my life in fear. Now, I have no fear because I’m no longer in control.”

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Barbara Walters also said he told her he understands why his one-time clients hate him, and that the average person thinks he “robbed widows and orphans,” according to Today. But he also told her, “I made wealthy people wealthier.”

Living in constant terror for two decades and contemplating suicide, the disgraced businessman is currently serving 150 years in prison.

His massive Ponzi scheme that essentially made him billions of dollars has labeled him as one of the most hated men in America, which is clear in the following video:

Now, his wife, Ruth Madoff said, “I don’t know whose idea it was, but [my husband and I] decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening,” in the interview with “60 Minutes,” according to excerpts released by CBS.

She said it was Christmas Eve, which added to their depression, and she decided: “I just can’t go on anymore.”

“How long did you plan it?” asked Lauer in her live interview with Today. “15 minutes,” said Ruth. “We didn’t plan it.” She says her willingness to take her own life was contributed by the “agony” and loss of all of her friends.

Basically, the couple took “a bunch of pills,” including Ambien and blood pressure medication, but ended up waking up the next day.

“There’s not a day that goes by… my life is always full of shame,” said Ruth.

Regarding their new book Truth and Consequences: Life Inside the Madoff Family, son Andrew Madoff said, “We were so vilified by the tabloids, and this was the chance for people to hear it from our own words,” according to Madoff. “This book was an opportunity for me to speak to thousands of victims that I don’t know.”

“My father… what he did was awful, and affected the lives of so many people… us among them… and I will never forgive him,” said Andrew.

However, guilt by association clearly plagued one son enough to take his own life. “Mark Madoff, hanged himself by a dog leash last year on the anniversary of his father’s arrest,” via Today.

The question we all want to know: Did Ruth or Andrew know?

“No,” said Ruth. She said did not have a good idea of his business. “He had been in the industry for a long time… It never occured to me.”

As far as Andrew’s knowledge of the scheme, he said his dad only told him that his business was “none of his business.”

After Bernie told the family about his Ponzi Scheme, Andrew not only cut off communication with his father, but with his mother as well. The two sons immediately turned their father in.

Inevitably, Andrew and Ruth tell Lauer that they blame Bernie for their brother/son Mark’s suicide.

Lauer tells the remaining family members that Bernie says he wants to explain why he went into this business. However, Andrew says he has no desire to hear what his father has to say.