Ruth Madoff tells 60 Minutes that she and her swindler husband, Bernard, attempted suicide together because of the "burden" of his notorious financial crimes, CBS News says.
"I don't know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening," she says in her first interview about the multi-billion Ponzi scheme. "We had terrible phone calls. Hate mail, just beyond anything and I said '…I just can't go on anymore.'
Bernard Madoff, 73, the former chairman of the Nasdaq, was arrested Dec. 11, 2008. The couple took pills -- Ambien and possibly some Klonopin, she said -- on Christmas Eve.
"I took what we had, he took more," she said. "We took pills and woke up the next day. ... It was very impulsive and I am glad we woke up."
Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 felonies in March 2009 and is serving 150 years in federal prison.
An excerpt of the interview will be shown on tonight's CBS Evening News. The full 60 Minutes interview airs Sunday. CBS says it "will contain many previously undisclosed revelations about the family in the aftermath of the scandal. Viewers will hear for the first time how and where Bernard Madoff confessed his crimes to his loved ones, their reaction and the subsequent family strife of the past three years."
