In March 2009, financier Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 felonies in a scheme that authorities at the time called the biggest Ponzi scheme in the world. In 2025, the Department of Justice announced that 94% of the estimated $65 billion losses from the scam were repaid to victims. One of these victims was Kevin Bacon.
In a recent interview with Esquire magazine, Kevin Bacon reflected on the highlights of his legendary film career and didn’t shy away from talking about the darker times as well.
Bacon, who stars in the new Prime Video horror series “The Bondsman,” and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, were two of the many people who fell victim to Bernie Madoff’s infamous scheme.
While Bacon has never given the exact figure of how much the couple lost, it is believed that the number is in the millions. During a 2022 appearance on the Smartless podcast, he revealed, “We had most of our money in Madoff,” adding, “There’s obvious life lessons there – if something is too good to be true, it’s too good to be true.” He also noted that his family was able to recover “a portion of some money back.”
Related: Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme Victims Get Final Payments
When Esquire asked him if the experience made him jaded about investing, he answered: “No, not jaded. More careful. But not jaded.”
“It sucked, and we were certainly angry and all the things,” Bacon said. “But then we woke up the next day and said, ‘What do we [have]? We love each other. We love our children. We’re healthy. No one took away our ability to make a living.’ So we got back to work.”
Bacon also humorously shared how the experience had one surprising upshot, specifically on his fitness routine.
“I go to this gym. It has a few machines and only a handful of people there at any given time. There’s no showers, it’s very bare bones. But there’s a leg press machine. A leg press can be brutal,” he explained. “The machine is right next to a window, and when I look out that window, I’m looking right at the building where Madoff was. I’m in excruciating pain, doing the leg press, staring out that window. It’s perfect, in a funny way, because I also have to think, I can get through this. And that’s how we felt about Madoff.”
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